"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.

She heard the sigh that wasted itself on his lips.

"I am glad you can say that,--I wish you would look up!" he said
wistfully.

"Are you going to-night?" she questioned.

"Yes, but I am coming back. I shan't find that you have forgotten me
when I come, shall I, Elizabeth?"

She looked up quickly into his troubled face, and it was not the warm
firelight that brought the rich color in a sudden flame to her cheeks.

"I shall not forget you."