“You won’t let me down, now, will you?” he said.

“How?”

“While you’re away. I mean, you’re sure to come back?”

“I’m as sure as I can be of anything, that I shall come back.”

“Yes! Well! Twentieth of July!”

He looked at her so strangely.

Yet he really wanted her to go. That was so curious. He wanted her to go, positively, to have her little adventures and perhaps come home pregnant, and all that. At the same time, he was afraid of her going.

She was quivering, watching her real opportunity for leaving him altogether, waiting till the time, herself, himself, should be ripe.

She sat and talked to the keeper of her going abroad.