"You know we leave in the morning?" he said, when at last it became
necessary for him to go.

"Yes," she answered calmly. "And perhaps it is better that it
should be so--that we be apart for a little while to consider this
new-found happiness and understand it. I shall be sustained with
the thought that in giving you to the country I have given more
than any one else. I know that you will do something that will
make me still prouder of you, and my presentiments, which never
fail me, assure me that you will return to me safely."

His face showed a little disappointment with the answer.

She reached above her head, and breaking off a bud handed it to
him, saying in the words of Juliet:

"Sweet, good-night:
This bud of love, by Summer's ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower, when next we meet."

He kissed the bud, and put it in his bosom; kissed her again
passionately, and descended the hill to prepare for his departure
in the morning.

She was with the rest of the village at the depot to bid the company
good-bye, and was amazed to find how far the process of developing
the bud into the flower had gone in her heart since parting with
her lover. Her previous partiality and admiration for him appeared
now very tame and colorless, beside the emotions that stirred her