"Don't think me foolish," she said, "but I feel—I feel as if—as if this were the last time you and I were to be together."
"Don't unman me, Helena," said Gordon. "The work I have to do in Alexandria may be dangerous, but don't tell me you are afraid——"
"It isn't that. I shouldn't be fit to be a soldier's daughter or to become—to become a soldier's wife if I were afraid of that. No, I'm not afraid of that, Gordon. I shall never allow myself to be afraid of that. But——"
"But what, Helena?"
"I feel as if something has broken between you and me, and we shall never be the same to each other after to-night. It frightens me. You are so near, yet you seem so far away. Coming out of the house a moment ago, I felt as if I had to take farewell of you, here and now."
Without more ado Gordon took her firmly in his arms, and with one hand on her forehead that he might look full in her face, he said—
"You are not angry with me, Helena—for what I said to your father just now?"
"No, oh no! you were speaking out of your heart, and perhaps it was partly that——"
"You didn't agree with me, I know that quite well, but you love me still, Helena?"
"Don't ask me that, dear."