With the greatest difficulty I preserved my self-control until we reached the door of our lodgings.
There I was obliged to plead fatigue, and ask him to let me rest for a little while in the solitude of my own room.
"Shall we sail to-morrow ?" he called after me suddenly, as I ascended the stairs.
Sail with him to the Mediterranean the next day?
Pass weeks and weeks absolutely alone with him, in the narrow limits of a vessel, with his horrible secret parting us in sympathy further and further from each other day by day?
I shuddered at the thought of it.
"To-morrow is rather a short notice," I said.

"Will you give me a little longer time to prepare for the voyage ?" "Oh yes--take any time you like," he answered, not (as I thought) very willingly.

"While you are resting--there are still one or two little things to be settled--I think I will go back to the yacht.

Is there anything I can do for you, Valeria, before I go ?" "Nothing--thank you, Eustace." He hastened away to the harbor.

Was he afraid of his own thoughts, if he were left by himself in the house.