"You will sail in two weeks." Then in two weeks she could be out of it all, could be far away in new surroundings, among new ideas, among strangers.

She could make the new start; she could submerge, drown her old self in the new interests.
"Will you come ?" he said, when he could endure the suspense no longer.
"Won't you come ?" She temporized.

"I'm afraid I couldn't--oughtn't to leave--mother and Arthur just now." He smiled sadly.

She might need her mother and her brother; but in the mood in which she had been for the last few months, they certainly did not need her.

"Adelaide," said he, with that firmness which he knew so well how to combine with gentleness, without weakening it, "our whole future depends on this.