In about an hour after Mrs. Cliff began her watch, a tall man walked rapidly out of the salon and went down the stairs, and then a woman came running across the hall and into Mrs. Cliff’s room, closing the door behind her.  Mrs. Cliff scarcely recognized this woman.  She had Edna’s hair and face, but there was a glow and a glory on her countenance such as Mrs. Cliff had never seen, or expected to see until, in the hereafter, she should see it on the face of an angel.

“He has loved me,” said Edna, with her arms around her old friend’s neck, “ever since we had been a week on the Castor.”

Mrs. Cliff shivered and quivered with joy.  She could not say anything, but over and over again she kissed the burning cheeks of her friend.  At last they stood apart, and, when Mrs. Cliff was calm enough to speak, she said: 

“Ever since we were on the Castor! Well, Edna, you must admit that Captain Horn is uncommonly good at keeping things to himself.”

“Yes,” said the other, “and he always kept it to himself.  He never let it go away from him.  He had intended to speak to me, but he wanted to wait until I knew him better, and until we were in a position where he wouldn’t seem to be taking advantage of me by speaking.  And when you proposed that marriage by Cheditafa, he was very much troubled and annoyed.  It was something so rough and jarring, and so discordant with what he had hoped, that at first he could not bear to think of it.  But he afterwards saw the sense of your reasoning, and agreed simply because it would be to my advantage in case he should lose his life in his undertaking.  And we will be married to-morrow at the embassy.”

“To-morrow!” cried Mrs. Cliff.  “So soon?”

“Yes,” replied Edna.  “The captain has to go away, and I am going with him.”

“That is all right,” said Mrs. Cliff.  “Of course I was a little surprised at first.  But how about the gold?  How much was there of it?  And what is he going to do with it?”

“He scarcely mentioned the gold,” replied Edna.  “We had more precious things to talk about.  When he sees us all together, you and I and Ralph, he will tell us what he has done, and what he is going to do, and—­”

“And we can say what we please?” cried Mrs. Cliff.

“Yes,” said Edna,—­“to whomever we please.”

“Thank the Lord!” exclaimed Mrs. Cliff.  “That is almost as good as being married.”

* * * * *

On his arrival in Paris the night before, Captain Horn had taken lodgings at a hotel not far from the Hotel Grenade, and the first thing he did the next morning was to visit Edna.  He had supposed, of course, that she was at the same hotel in which Mrs. Cliff resided, which address he had got from Wraxton, in Marseilles, and he had expected to see the elderly lady first, and to get some idea of how matters stood before meeting Edna.  He was in Paris alone.  He had left Shirley and Burke, with the negroes, in Marseilles.  He had wished to do nothing, to make no arrangements for any one, until he had seen Edna, and had found out what his future life was to be.