She deserved some attention after this long time! The end of the session had come, and still the Government hung on, but it was obvious that they had been so much discredited that the end could not be long postponed, and that, as soon as Parliament met again, a hostile vote would be carried against them.

But for the time there was nothing to keep John Derringham in England, and with intense reluctance he started for Italy, the ever-nearing date for his wedding looming in front of him like some heavy cloud.

He had plunged headlong into work when he had returned from Wendover, for which he was still quite unfit.
His whole system had received a terrible shock, and it would be months before he could hope to be his old robust self again; and an unutterable depression was upon him.

The total silence of Halcyone, her disappearance from the face of the earth as far as he was concerned, seemed like something incredible.
There were no traces of her.

Mrs.Porrit was out, and the orchard house shut up, so, he obtained no information.