Salome would have been much happier to have been left alone with the servants, for she knew that, with Madame Winthrop and Evelyn in the house, she would be under continual restraint; but since it was her husband’s wish that they should remain, she would not make any objections to the plan. “I will try to make everything comfortable and pleasant for them,” she gravely replied. “Thank you, dear, and you are to have everything that you need or wish for, during my absence; make free with your cheque book—go out every day with the ponies; they need exercise, and it will do you good; only be careful not to take cold, and don’t worry about anything. Write to me by every steamer, and you shall hear from me as often. There, little wife, I believe I cannot think of any more orders to give you,” he concluded, with a smile; “if I do later, I will write them.” “I will try to do all that you wish,” she said, but her lip quivered over the words. “Now I think I have everything I shall need,” he remarked as he closed his trunk, “and as I have a little business to do down-town before I sail, I must hurry away. I am going to say my special good-by to you here, while we are alone,” he added, as he took her again into his arms, and laid her head upon his breast. “May Heaven bless and keep you, my own wife, while we are parted, and grant that we may soon be reunited.” Salome’s heart was almost breaking, and filled, too, with an indefinable fear. “True! True! how can I let you go?” she breathed, almost breaking down again, and moved by the impulse of the moment, she twined her arms about his neck, and clung to him with a strength that surprised him. He kissed her again and again, and then put her gently from him. “Do not come down, dear, if you would rather not,” he said, thinking she might find it difficult to preserve her self-control. “Oh, yes, I must,” she said, with a pathetic little smile, which told him that she longed to be near him until the last moment. They went downstairs together, and madam and Evelyn, hearing them, came out into the hall to make their farewells. He took an affectionate leave of them, remarking as he did so, and with a purpose in it: “I have told Salome that you are to be her guests while I am away, and she has assured me that she will do everything in her power to make your stay comfortable and pleasant. I have given her full authority, and you must fill the time as enjoyably as possible. Of course you will be anxious about father, but I am going to cable Norman before I start, to send you a bulletin every day until my arrival, after which I will keep you posted. Now I must go, Salome.” She sprang toward him—he folded her in a passionate embrace, kissed her on the forehead and lips, and then was gone. Her face was wet with tears when she turned again to Madame Winthrop and Evelyn; but she looked up with a brave little smile, and asked: