"Fie, for shame!" he retorted laughingly--"Be not so disloyal of speech, Geoffrey! Are you not going to entertain the Prince of Wales?--and shall anyone be more 'eagerly-desired' than he? No,--I must play a humble third or even fourth on your list where Royalty is concerned,--_my_ princedom is alas! not that of Wales,--and the throne I might claim (if I had anyone to help me, which I have not) is a long way removed from that of England!" Sibyl said nothing,--but her eyes rested on his handsome face and fine figure with an odd wonder and wistfulness, and she was very pale. "Good-bye Lady Sibyl!" he added gently--"All joy be with you! To us who are left behind, your absence will seem long,--but to _you_,--ah!--Love gives wings to time, and what would be to ordinary folks a month of mere dull living, will be for you nothing but a moment's rapture! Love is better than wealth,--you have found that out already I know!--but I think--and hope--that you are destined to make the knowledge more certain and complete! Think of me sometimes! Au revoir!" The horses started,--a handful of rice flung by the society idiot who is always at weddings, rattled against the door and on the roof of the brougham, and Lucio stepped back, waving his hand. To the last we saw him,--a tall stately figure on the steps of Lord Elton's mansion,--surrounded by an ultra-fashionable throng, ... bridesmaids in bright attire and picture-hats,--young girls all eager and excited-looking, each of them no doubt longing fervently for the day to come when they might severally manage to secure as rich a husband as myself, ... match-making mothers and wicked old dowagers, exhibiting priceless lace on their capacious bosoms, and ablaze with diamonds, ... men with white button-hole bouquets in their irreproachably fitting frock-coats,--servants in gay liveries, and the usual street-crowd of idle sight-seers;--all this cluster of faces, costumes and flowers, was piled against the grey background of the stone portico,--and in the midst, the dark beauty of Lucio's face and the luminance of his flashing eyes made him the conspicuous object and chief centre of attraction, ... then, ... the carriage turned a sharp corner,--the faces vanished,--and Sibyl and I realised that from henceforward we were left alone,--alone to face the future and ourselves,--and to learn the lesson of love ... or hate ... for evermore together! XXVI