"To say good-by?" she repeated.
He nodded gloomily.
"Do you mean that you are going to leave Mount Hope?" she asked slowly.
"Yes, to-night maybe."
Her glance no longer met his, but he was conscious that she had lost something of her serenity.
"Are you sorry, Elizabeth?" he ventured.
To pass mutely out of her life had suddenly seemed an impossibility, and his tenderness and yearning trembled in his voice. She answered obliquely, by asking:
"Must you go?"
"I want to get away from Mount Hope. I want to leave it all,—all but you, dear!" he said. "You haven't answered me, Elizabeth; will you care?"
"I am sorry," she said slowly, and the light in her gray-blue eyes darkened.