The worst had now come to pass; her vague suspicions of Hew's complicity in the affair were useless now, and Cecil seemed lost to her for ever. 'Now,' thought Sir Piers, with grim satisfaction, 'now that this unfortunate fellow Falconer is gone, he will forget Mary, and she will forget him, and, as a matter of course, Mary will return to her senses, and Hew's time will come.' Perhaps Hew thought so too. 'When she sees him no more she will cease to grieve for him,' said Mrs. Garth, 'and this sore trouble will be lifted off our darling's heart in time--please God, in time.' But the very mystery that involved Cecil's departure added to the trouble and thought of the girl he left behind him. A nervous agony of mind and a great terror fell upon Mary--a terror that with Cecil's hopeless and aimless departure, none knew for where, a long and dull life lay before her, without the society of him for whom she seemed only now to have begun to exist--he so winsome, manly, chivalrous, and all her own. Through the long weary hours of the night she often lay dry-eyed and feverish, without a tear coming to relieve her overcharged heart, for she and Cecil seemed parted now and for ever, as surely as if death had done so. Wild, at times, was the longing to follow him--but _where_? Would she ever throw her soft arms round him again, and feel his lip meet hers! Then the warm bright morning of the early summer would come mockingly in, and the routine of life had to be dreamily gone through. So these two were parted thus, without having knowledge of each other, in sickness or health; and without the hopeful joy of a happy meeting, or reunion at any time, to look forward to. It is 'when we are left alone with the reality of an anguish that has hitherto been but a dread, there comes the darkness which, like that of Egypt, may be _felt_.' And such was the dark anguish that fell upon the heart of Mary now. CHAPTER XI. 'THE INITIALS.' In the last chapter we have somewhat anticipated the progress of time, for in the first few weeks after the disappearance of Cecil Falconer, certain disagreeables in the love of Fotheringhame and Annabelle Erroll, fortunately for Mary, served to attract her attention and draw her from her own great sorrow.