There was no time to be lost.  He was bound to a hot climate, and must take all advantage possible of the winter months.  He was to go first to Paris, to have interviews with some of the scientific men there.  Some of his outfit, instruments, &c., were to follow him to Havre, from which port he was to embark, after transacting his business in Paris.  The squire learnt all his arrangements and plans, and even tried in after-dinner conversations to penetrate into the questions involved in the researches his son was about to make.  But Roger’s visit home could not be prolonged beyond two days.

The last day he rode into Hollingford earlier than he needed to have done to catch the London coach, in order to bid the Gibsons good-by.  He had been too actively busy for some time to have leisure to bestow much thought on Cynthia; but there was no need for fresh meditation on that subject.  Her image as a prize to be worked for, to be served for seven years, and seven years more,’ was safe and sacred in his heart.  It was very bad, this going away, and wishing her good-by for two long years; and he wondered much during his ride how far he should be justified in telling her mother, perhaps in telling her own sweet self, what his feelings were without expecting, nay, indeed reprobating, any answer on her part.  Then she would know at any rate how dearly she was beloved by one who was absent; how in all difficulties or dangers the thought of her would be a polar star, high up in the heavens, and so on, and so on; for with all a lover’s quickness of imagination and triteness of fancy, he called her a star, a flower, a nymph, a witch, an angel, or a mermaid, a nightingale, a siren, as one or another of her attributes rose up before him.

CHAPTER XXXIV

A LOVER’S MISTAKE

It was afternoon.  Molly had gone out for a walk.  Mrs. Gibson had been paying some calls.  Lazy Cynthia had declined accompanying either.  A daily walk was not a necessity to her as it was to Molly.  On a lovely day, or with an agreeable object, or when the fancy took her, she could go as far as any one; but these were exceptional cases; in general, she was not disposed to disturb herself from her in-door occupations.  Indeed, not one of the ladies would have left the house, had they been aware that Roger was in the neighbourhood; for they were aware that he was to come down but once before his departure, and that his stay at home then would be but for a short time, and they were all anxious to wish him good-by before his long absence, But they had understood that he was not coming to the Hall until the following week, and therefore they had felt themselves at full liberty this afternoon to follow their own devices.