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I wished her to remain at Chillon, intending, myself, to start for the Americas, whence any sudden impulse to return to her could not be easily accomplished:  but she refused, saying that she would come with me to the coast of France:  and I could not say her no.

And at the coast, after thirteen days we arrived, three days before the New Year, traversing France by steam, air, and petrol traction.

We came to Havre—­infirm, infirm of will that I was:  for in my deep heart was the secret, hidden away from my own upper self, that, she being at Havre, and I at Portsmouth, we could still speak together.

We came humming into the dark town of Havre in a four-seat motor-car about ten in the evening of the 29th December:  a raw bleak night, she, it was clear, poor thing, bitterly cramped with cold.  I had some recollection of the place, for I had been there, and drove to the quays, near which I stopped at the Maire’s large house, a palatial place overlooking the sea, in which she slept, I occupying another near.

The next morning I was early astir, searched in the mairie for a map of the town, where I also found a Bottin:  I could thus locate the Telephone Exchange.  In the Maire’s house, which I had fixed upon to be her home, the telephone was set up in an alcove adjoining a very stately salon Louis Quinze; and though I knew that these little dry batteries would not be run down in twenty odd years, yet, fearing any weakness, I broke open the box, and substituted a new one from the Company’s stores two streets away, at the same time noting the exchange-number of the instrument.  This done, I went down among the ships by the wharves, and fixed upon the first old green air-boat that seemed fairly sound, broke open a near shop, procured some buckets of oil, and by three o’clock had tested and prepared my ship.  It was a dull and mournful day, drizzling, chilly.  I returned then to the mairie, where for the first time I saw her, and she was heavy of heart that day:  but when I broke the news that she would be able to speak to me, every day, all day, first she was all incredulous astonishment, then, for a moment, her eyes turned white to Heaven, then she was skipping like a kid.  We were together three precious hours, examining the place, and returning with stores of whatever she might require, till I saw darkness coming on, and we went down to the ship.

And when those long-dead screws awoke and moved, bearing me toward the Outer Basin, I saw her stand darkling, lonely, on the Quai through heart-rending murk and drizzly inclemency:  and oh my God, the gloomy under-look of those red eyes, and the piteous out-push of that little lip, and the hurried burying of that face!  My heart broke, for I had not given her even one little, last kiss, and she had been so good, quietly acquiescing, like a good wife, not attempting to force her presence upon me in the ship; and I left her there, all widowed, alone on the Continent of Europe, watching after me:  and I went out to the bleak and dreary fields of the sea.