When he did speak, all the enthusiasm had gone from his voice.

He spoke gazing into the stream.
"To Wadi Halfa.

For two years.

I suppose so." Ethne kneeled upon the grass at his side.
"I shall miss you," she said.
She was kneeling just behind him as he sat on the ground, and again there fell a silence between them.
"Of what are you thinking ?" "That you need not miss me," he said, and he was aware that she drew back and sank down upon her heels.

"My appointment at Halfa--I might shorten its term.