He said it, too, to please her; but yet the syllables came mournfully, as if they meant a world more than hers, and the sound of them half frightened her, so that she was sorry she had asked him for the word.
"Not so!" she cried, in quick alarm.

"You are not keeping anything from me?
You are only going to the next room to meet the King--are you sure ?" "That is all.

You see, the word frightened you.

It seems such a sad word to me--I will not say it again." He kissed her gently, as if to soothe her fear, and then he opened the door and set the key in the lock on the inside.

Then when he was outside, he lingered a moment, and their lips met once more without a word, and they nodded and smiled to one another a last time, and he closed the door and heard her lock it.
When she was alone, she turned away as if he were gone from her altogether instead of being in the next room, where she could hear him moving now and then, as he placed his chair near the light to read and arranged the candlesticks on the table.