It came to the last evening, and he was sitting with her on the verandah. It was rather cool there now; the roses and honeysuckles and the summer moonshine were gone; the two friends chose to stay there because they could be alone, and nobody overhear their words. Words for a little while had ceased to flow. Esther was sitting very still, and Pitt knew how she was looking; something of the dry despair had come back to her face which had been in it when he was first moved to busy himself about her.
'Esther, I shall come back,' he said suddenly, bending down to look in her face.
'When?' she said, half under her breath. It was not a question; it was an answer.
'Well, not immediately; but the years pass away fast, don't you know that?'
'Are you sure you will come back?'
'Why, certainly! if I am alive I will. Why, if I came for nothing else,
I would come to see after you, Queen Esther.'
Esther was silent. Talking was not easy.
'And meanwhile, I shall be busy, and you will be busy. We have both a great deal to do.'
'You have.'
'And I am sure you have. Now let us consult. What have you got to do, before we see one an other again?'