"How he despises us all!" she said slowly--"What scorn underlies his words! Do you not recognise it?" "He was always a cynic,--" I replied indifferently--"I never expect him to be anything else." "He seems to know some of the ways of the women who are coming here--" she went on in the same musing accents; "It is as if he read their thoughts, and perceived their intentions at a distance." Her brows knitted frowningly, and she seemed for some time absorbed in gloomy meditation. But I did not pursue the subject,--I was too intent on my own fussy preparations for the Prince's arrival to care about anything else. And, as I have said, Royalty, in the person of one of the most genial of men, came and went through the whole programme devised for his entertainment, and then departed again with his usual courteous acknowledgments for the hospitality offered and accepted,--leaving us, as he generally leaves everybody, charmed with his good-humour and condescension, provided his temper has not been ruffled. When, with his exit from the scene, the whole party broke up, leaving my wife and me to our own two selves once more, there came a strange silence and desolation over the house that was like the stealthy sense of some approaching calamity. Sibyl seemed to feel it as much as I did,--and though we said nothing to each other concerning our mutual sensations, I could see that she was under the same cloud of depression as myself. She went oftener to Lily Cottage, and always from these visits to the fair-haired student among the roses, came back, I hopefully fancied in softer mood,--her very voice was gentler,--her eyes more thoughtful and tender. One evening she said-- "I have been thinking, Geoffrey, that perhaps there is some good in life after all, if I could only find it out and _live_ it. But you are the last person to help me in such a matter." I was sitting in an arm-chair near the open window, smoking, and I turned my eyes upon her with some astonishment and a touch of indignation. "What do you mean, Sibyl?" I asked--"Surely you know that I have the greatest desire to see you always in your best aspect,--many of your ideas have been most repugnant to me...."