I did not refuse the hand he held out.  I buried mine in it.

I did not smile nor mistrust, nor misunderstand the tears in his eyes, nor despise him because I knew they would soon enough be dry.  I did not doubt his sincerity when he said, “I have never done so bitter a thing as say ‘good-bye’ to this—­though I know but too well such are not for me.”

He bent over her, as if he would take her in his arms.

She was unconscious.  I felt tempted to put her there.  I knew I loved her as he could never love—­yet I pitied him the more for that.

“Tell her,” he whispered, “tell her, when she shall have forgotten this—­as I hope she will—­that for this hour at least I loved her; that losing her I am liable to love her long,—­so we shall never meet again.  I shall never cease to be grateful to the Providence that threw you in my way—­after to-night.  To-night I could curse it and my conscience with a right good will.”  With an effort he straightened himself.  “You can afford to forgive me,” he said, “for I—­I envy you with all my heart.”—­And he was gone.

I heard his voice as he spoke to the waiter outside.  I listened to his step as he descended the stairs.  He had passed out of our life forever.

That was years ago.

She has long been dead.

He was not to blame if the sunshine that danced in music out of the eyes of the woman I loved never quite came back again.  We were, all the same, happy together in our way.

He was not to blame if it was written in the big book of Fate that it should be his heart, and not mine, that should read the song she bore in her soul.

Something must be sacrificed for Art.  We sacrificed our first illusions—­and the Song he read will sing on when even Rodriguez is but a tradition.

X

EPILOGUE

ADIEU

HOW WE WENT OUT OF THE GARDEN

The last word had hardly been uttered when the Youngster, who had been fidgeting, leaped to his feet.

“Hark!” he cried.

We all listened.

“Cannon,” he yelled, and rushed out to the big gate, which he tore open, and dashed into the road.

There was no doubt of it.  Off to the north we could all hear the dull far-off booming of artillery.

We followed into the garden.

The Youngster was in the middle of the road.  As we joined him he bent toward the ground, as if, Indian-like, he could hear better.  “Hush,” he said in a whisper, as we all began to talk.  “Hush!  I hear horses.”

There was a dead silence, and in it, we could hear the pounding of horses’ hoofs in the valley.