CHAPTER XXXIV.
TRAVELLING THROUGH SAHARA The hope I dreamed of was a dream-- Was but a dream; and now I wake Exceeding comfortless, and worn and sad For a dream's sake.
-- CHRISTINA ROSSETTI.
For the next few weeks Malcolm was much occupied with business, but he contrived to pay a flying visit to Oxford, and to spend a few hours with Dinah and Cedric.

He had corresponded with Dinah regularly, and her letters told him all he most wished to know.

At first they had been very sad.

Cedric had broken down utterly on seeing his sisters, and both she and Elizabeth had been very much upset.

The change in him was so great that they could hardly recognise their bright-faced boy, and Dinah owned that they had been shocked by the hard, reckless manner in which he had spoken.