I took that to be a sort of command that I was to wait, and though longing to have it settled then and there, I braked myself up and answered her question. Now I see what a duffer I was—Madge told me after>wards that she asked only because she was so frightened and confused that she felt she must stop my speaking for a moment.
I did my best till I heard the whistle the locomotive gives as it runs into yard limits, and then rose. “Good-by, Miss Cullen,” I said, properly enough, though no death-bed farewell was ever more gloomily spoken; and she responded, “Good-by, Mr. Gordon,” with equal propriety.
I held her hand, hating to let her go, and the first thing I knew, I blurted out, “I wish I had the brass of Lord Ralles!”
“I don’t,” she laughed, “because, if you had, I shouldn’t be willing to let you—”
And what she was going to say, and why she didn’t say it, is the concern of no one but Mr. and Mrs. Richard Gordon.
THE END
Transcriber’s Note:
The discrepancies of four or seven “years of Western life” on [Page_7], [Page_15] and [Page_26] have been retained as in the original.
Page 49. Changed “good-bye” to “good-by” twice. (... I bade [good-by] to the captain and Albert.); (“I hope it isn’t [good-by], but only au revoir,” she said.)