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"After all" he
added, with a laugh, "what does it matter! The country can get on
without me!"
Thelma smiled a little.
"You must not talk so foolishly, Philip," she said tenderly. "It is
wrong to begin a thing of importance, and not go through with it. And I
am not worried or vexed at all. What would people say of me if I, your
wife, were, for my own selfish comfort and pleasure of having you always
with me, to prevent you from taking a good place among the men of your
nation? Indeed, I should deserve much blame! And so, though it is a
gloomy day for you, poor boy,--you must go to this place where you are
wanted, and I shall think of you all the time you are gone, and shall be
so happy to welcome you home to-morrow!"
And she kissed and clung to him for a moment in silence. All that day
Philip was haunted by the remembrance of the lingering tenderness of her
farewell embrace. By ten o'clock he was gone, taking Neville with him;
and after her household duties were over, Thelma prepared herself to go
and lunch with old Mrs.


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