sobbed.

The conviction that their wilderness held Lewis no longer brought a
certain strength to Natalie's sudden womanhood. It was as though Fate
had cried to her, "The burden is all thine; take it up," and with the
same breath had given her the sure courage that comes with renunciation.
She answered Dom Francisco's wistful questioning before it could take
shape in words.

"We cannot stay," she said. "We must go. You will still help us to go."

Nature's long silences breed silence in man. Dom Francisco ceased to
question even with his eyes. He made all ready, delivered them into the
hands of trusted henchmen, and bade them God's speed. They struck out
for the sea, but not by the long road that Lewis and the stranger had
followed. There was a nearer Northern port. Toward it they set their
faces, Consolation Cottage their goal.




CHAPTER XXI


Three weeks to a day from the time he had left Lewis in Paris, as Nelton
was serving him with breakfast, Leighton received a telegram that gave
him no inconsiderable shock. The telegram was from Le Brux.

"Come at once," it said; "your son has killed me."