Nicholas was sitting at the study table, looking over papers. He rose and drew forward a chair for her, and then sat down again. "The best thing that could happen, under the circumstances," he said, "has come to pass. I am appointed to join the French army in the Crimea, for purposes of study. Here is the appointment. These are letters from General Scott and from the Secretary of War. Just glance at them, if you please." She read them, almost without comprehending their meaning. "When do you go?" "To-morrow morning. It is the best thing to do, under the circumstances." "Yes, the best under the circumstances," she repeated after him. He looked at her anxiously, but said nothing. "What are you to take with you?" she asked, rising from her chair. "I must go and look over your clothes." "All the military traps I have here, of course; not much besides, for I would rather buy what I want. Don't trouble yourself, my--" He paused. "I will see to every thing." "No, I want to do it myself," she said. "I must go and speak to Holston about your money matters while I am gone. He will do every thing a brother could do." "Every thing," she said. He looked at her again uneasily, and seemed about to speak; then left the room. "I've killed her," he thought; "but words are mere insults now." He was gone, and without one word of explanation. It was, then, no nightmare, to be dispelled by a change of posture. There was no awakening for her. It was all true! XIII. Mary was alone with the baby. Georgina's tiny hand was clasped around her mother's finger; rosy cheek and dewy lip invited many a loving maternal caress. At least here was love, without anxiety or heart-ache. "My love for this child, to whom I have given life, is faint in comparison to God's love for his creatures," she thought. "My soul shall rest on him, as Georgie rests in my arms. He knows the way out of this blackness. I will follow him trustfully." The day was hard to bear; wife's work without wife's consolation. Sewing, sorting, packing, filled the hours too closely to leave much time for active grief. They were services that could easily have been performed by a servant; but Mary, amid the perplexity which clouded her life, kept one purpose clearly before her--to fulfil her duties thoroughly toward her husband, and even toward the unhappy woman who had poisoned her happiness, and thus prevent further entanglement. The dinner hour, whose claims prevail over every other external circumstance in life, was lived through, thanks to the presence of Italian servants, who do not expect friends to look happy on the eve of separation, and are ready to melt into tears of sympathy at a moment's warning. Vane passed the evening in his study, transacting business with Mr. Holston and a lawyer; Mary in his dressing-room, attending to "last things."