“God bless you, and good-bye!” we called.

And their voices came back to us.  “God bless you and good-bye!” They were carried into the enveloping night.  We stared after them down the road; watching the lantern on the tail-board of the cart diminish; watching it dim and dwindle to a point of gray;—­listening until the hoof-beats of the heavy Norman grew fainter than the rustle of the branch that rose above the wall beside us.  But it is bad luck to strain eyes and ears to the very last when friends are parting, because that so sharpens the loneliness; and before the cart went quite beyond our ken, two of us set out upon the longest way to Quesnay.

THE END