Page:Robert William Cole - The Struggle for Empire; A Story of the Year 2236 (1900).djvu/223

Rh say farewell to her, as he would soon be leaving for Neptune.

She opened his letter with eagerness, while her cheek was tinged with love's fairest colours. But as she read on, her cheek turned pale, and she tottered on to a sofa. There she remained for hours, gazing far out into the country with a vacant, hopeless expression in her eyes, but not a tear fell. Later on she collected her senses somewhat, and wrote a note to him in which she wished him every happiness and success in his new life, and expressed a wish to see him on the following day. He came, and she received him with a calm stateliness that awed him. They talked for some time about the war and its results; then she gave him her hand and they parted—for ever. As soon as the door had closed upon him, she threw herself on to a couch and burst into an uncontrollable fit of weeping. Two and a half centuries of science and all the advances and changes that had been made in 14—2