would find him speeding on his way West. He had given up everything for
nothing, and now that a purpose, a hope, a great love had come to him,
he must go from this place, the town of his birth, where he had become a
bankrupt in both purse and reputation.

It was a relief when they returned to the drawing-room. There the
general excused himself, and North and Elizabeth were left alone. She
seated herself before the open fire of blazing hickory logs, whose
light, and that of the shaded lamps, filled the long room with a soft
radiance. She had never seemed so desirable to North as now when he was
about to leave her. He stood silent, leaning against the corner of the
chimneypiece, looking down on all her springlike radiance. Usually he
was neither preoccupied nor silent, but to-night he was both. The
thought that he was seeing her for the last time--Ah, this was the price
of all his folly! At length he spoke.

"I came to-night to say good-by, Elizabeth!"

She glanced up, startled.

"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.