No art could have given a finer setting to this the last act.
Neither cared to break the spell, and so they rode in silence until it seemed as if the intense stillness could no longer be borne. It was she who first spoke:
"And so it is really good-by?"
For a long time he did not answer, but gazed steadily ahead of him, looking into space.
"Yes," he said at length, "it is good-by; and it were better had it been good-by three weeks ago."
"Why?"
He gave a little start, merely repeat
ing the word after her in a queer absent-minded way.
"Yes, why?"
"Oh, I don't know."