He had caught its flash, but he could not trust himself to look the closer.
"Not any more than I shall miss him," he rejoined sadly; "but he has lost almost everything he had in the bank failure and I cannot have him support me any longer--so I am going to sea." Kate started forward and laid her hand on his wrist: "To sea!--in a ship! Where ?" The inquiry came with such suddenness and with so keen a note of pain in her voice that Harry's heart gave a bound.

It was not St.George's losses then she was thinking of--she was thinking of him! He raised his eyes quickly and studied her face the closer; then his heart sank again.

No!--he was wrong--there was only wonder in her gaze; only her usual curiosity to know every detail of what was going on around her.
With a sigh he resumed his bent position, talking to the end of his walking-stick tracing figures in the gravel: "I shall go to Rio, probably," he continued in the same despondent tone--"or China.

That's why I called after you.

I sail day after to-morrow--Saturday at the latest--and it may be a good many years before I get back again, and so I didn't want to go, Kate, without telling you that--that--I forgive you for everything you have done to me--and whether you forgive me or not, I have kept my promises to you, and I will always keep them as long as I live." "What does dear Uncle George think of it ?" She too was addressing the end of the stick; gaining time to make up her mind what to do and say.
The old wound, of course, could not be opened, but she might save him and herself from fresh ones.
"He doesn't know I am going; nobody knows but you.