"My dear girl," he said, "that speech is unworthy of you. You are not
the sort of woman to believe in such nonsense as presentiments."

"Presentiments may be supernatural," she said, "but not more so
than the experience we have had. So long as you are with me I feel
comparatively untroubled, but if you go I know that something will
happen."

He sat down on the arm of her chair and took her hand. "You are
low-spirited yet," he said, "and consequently you take a morbid view
of everything. That is all. I am beginning to doubt if the dream we
had was anything more than the most remarkable dream on record; if it
were otherwise, two such wise heads as ours would have discovered the
hidden meaning by this time. And, granting that, you must also grant
that if anything were going to happen, you could not possibly know it;
nor will predicting it bring it about. I will be with you in two days
from this hour, and you will only remember how glad you were to get
rid of me."

"I hope so," she said. "But--is it absolutely necessary for you to
go?"

"Not if you don't mind living on bread and cheese for a year or two.
The farms of my ancestral home make a pretty good rent-roll, but if my
tenants become the untrammelled communists my steward predicts, we may
have to camp out on burnt stubble for some time to come. It is in the
hope of inducing them to leave me at least the Hall to take a bride to
that I go to interview them at once. I may be too late, but I will do
my best."