"Gone altogether?" inquired the Doctor calmly and without
surprise,--"Not to come back?"

"Not in this present generation!" she answered.

Still Dr. Dean evinced no surprise.

"Then you will have satisfied yourself?" he asked.

She bent her head.

"For the time being--yes! I shall have satisfied myself."

There followed a silence, during which the little Doctor looked at
his beautiful companion with all the meditative interest of a
scientist engaged in working out some intricate and deeply
interesting problem.

"I suppose I may not inquire how you propose to obtain this
satisfaction?" he said.

"You may inquire, but you will not be answered!" she retorted,
smiling darkly.

"Your intentions are pitiless?"

Still smiling, she said not a word.

"You are impenitent?"