I don't think I could ever be thoroughly happy away from here." "Nor I too, indeed," said Valmai, "now that I know it." "I hope you will never leave the place--you seem to belong to it somehow; and I hope I may never leave it, at least--at all events--" and he hesitated as he remembered his father's wishes--expressed many times, though at long intervals--that he should go to Australia and visit an uncle who had for many years lived there.

The prospect of a voyage to the Antipodes had never been very attractive to Cardo, and latterly the idea had faded from his mind.

In the glamour of that golden afternoon in spring, in Valmai's sweet companionship, the thought of parting and leaving his native country was doubly unpleasant to him.

She saw the sudden embarrassment, and the flush that spread over his face.
"You are going away ?" she said, looking up at him.
There was only inquiry in the tone.

Cardo wondered if she would be sorry, and was tempted to make the most of his possible departure.
"I may have to go away," he said, "though I should hate it.