He did not say what he hoped, for his tongue grew stiff and paralyzed, and only his eyes spoke the farewell which was forever. Alice and Guy were both away at a little town farther up the river, where Guy had some friends; but they hurried back to the vine-wreathed cottage they had taken for the summer, and where their father now lay dead. He was an old man, of nearly seventy, and had lived out his appointed time; but his children wept bitterly over him, and kissed his white lips and snowy hair, and then made him ready for the coffin, and buried him on the banks of the blue Rhine, where the river, in its ceaseless flow, and the rustling vines of Germany sing a requiem for the dead. “Let us go back to America,” Magdalen said, when Guy and Alice asked what her wishes were. Even before her father was buried from her sight, she had found Roger’s letter, of more than two and a half years ago, and had read it through, and her heart had leaped across the sea with the answer she would give. She knew Roger had not forgotten. He might have lost faith in her, from her silence; but he loved her still, and amid all her sorrow for her father, there was a spring of joy in her heart as she thought of the future opening so blissfully before her. She told Guy and Alice everything, and while they both felt how deeply she had been wronged, they uttered no word of censure against the father, who had wronged her so. He was dead and gone forever, and they made his grave beautiful with flowers and shrubs, and placed by it a costly stone, and dropped their tears upon it; and then turned their backs on Germany and travelled night and day until the sea was reached,—the glorious sea, at sight of which Magdalen wept tears of joy, blessing the dashing waves which were to bear her home to Beechwood and to Roger Irving. CHAPTER LII. MILLBANK IS SOLD AT AUCTION. Millbank was to be sold, with all its furniture and the hundred acres of land belonging to it. Five years had sufficed for Frank to run through his princely fortune, and he was a ruined man. Extravagant living, losses by fire and neglect to take advantage of the markets, fast horses, heavy bets, the dishonesty of Holt, his head man and chief adviser, and lastly, his signing of a note of twenty thousand dollars,—every penny of which he had to pay,—had done the business for him; and when the Greys landed in New York the papers were full of the “great failure” at Belvidere, and the day was fixed when Millbank was to be sold. Guy pointed out the paragraph to Magdalen, and then watched her as she read it. She was very white, and there was a strange gleam in her dark eyes; but she did not seem sorry. On the contrary, her face fairly shone as she looked up and said, “I shall buy Millbank and give it back to Roger.”