Aline took the yellow slip of paper.  “A cable,” added George.  “I got it this morning—­mailed on from my rooms in London.  Read it.”

“I’m trying to.  It doesn’t seem to make sense.”

George laughed grimly.

“It makes sense all right.”

“I don’t see how you can say that.  ’Meredith elephant kangaroo—?’”

“Office cipher; I was forgetting.  ‘Elephant’ means ’Seriously ill and unable to attend to duty.’  Meredith is one of the partners in my firm in New York.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry!  Do you think he is very sick?  Are you very fond of Mr. Meredith?”

“Meredith is a good fellow and I like him; but if it was simply a matter of his being ill I’m afraid I could manage to bear up under the news.  Unfortunately ‘kangaroo’ means ’Return, without fail, by the next boat.’”

“You must return by the next boat?” Aline looked at him, in her eyes a slow-growing comprehension of the situation.  “Oh!” she said at length.

“I put it stronger than that,” said George.

“But—­the next boat——­ That means on Wednesday.”

“Wednesday morning, from Southampton.  I shall have to leave here to-morrow.”

Aline’s eyes were fixed on the blue hills across the valley, but she did not see them.  There was a mist between.  She was feeling crushed and ill-treated and lonely.  It was as though George was already gone and she left alone in an alien land.

“But, George!” she said; she could find no other words for her protest against the inevitable.

“It’s bad luck,” said Emerson quietly; “but I shouldn’t wonder if it is not the best thing that really could have happened.  It finishes me cleanly, instead of letting me drag on and make both of us miserable.  If this cable hadn’t come I suppose I should have gone on bothering you up to the day of your wedding.  I should have fancied, to the last moment, that there was a chance for me; but this ends me with one punch.

“Even I haven’t the nerve to imagine that I can work a miracle in the few hours before the train leaves to-morrow.  I must just make the best of it.  If we ever meet again—­and I don’t see why we should—­you will be married.  My particular brand of mental suggestion doesn’t work at long range.  I shan’t hope to influence you by telepathy.”

He leaned on the balustrade at her side and spoke in a low, level voice.

“This thing,” he said, “coming as a shock, coming out of the blue sky without warning—­Meredith is the last man in the world you would expect to crack up; he looked as fit as a dray horse the last time I saw him—­somehow seems to have hammered a certain amount of sense into me.  Odd it never struck me before; but I suppose I have been about the most bumptious, conceited fool that ever happened.

“Why I should have imagined that there was a sort of irresistible fascination in me, which was bound to make you break off your engagement and upset the whole universe simply to win the wonderful reward of marrying me, is more than I can understand.  I suppose it takes a shock to make a fellow see exactly what he really amounts to.  I couldn’t think any more of you than I do; but, if I could, the way you have put up with my mouthing and swaggering and posing as a sort of superman, would make me do it.  You have been wonderful!”