"Y-yes—"
"And I told you I was listening to my father?"
Again that same chilly tremor passed over her as it had then.
The sun, over the Adirondack foot-hills, hung above bands of smouldering cloud. Presently it dipped into them, hanging triple-ringed, like Saturn on fire.
"It's time for you to go," he said in an altered voice; and she turned to find him standing and ready to aid her.
A little pale with the realisation that the end had come so soon, she rose and walked slowly back to where his horse stood munching leaves.
"Well, Virginia—good-bye, little girl. You'll be all right before long."
There was no humour left in his voice now; no mocking in his dark gaze.
She raised her eyes to his in vague distress.
"Where are the others?" he asked. "Oh, up on those rocks? Yes, I see the smoke of their fire.... Say good-bye to them for me—not now—some day."