“Hera!” he exclaimed. “Of what message do you speak?”
“Your despatch from Rome,” she answered, blissful in the conviction that it was not his.
“I sent no message from Rome. I have never sent you a message.”
Hera laughed for sheer joy. “Nor did you receive one from me the night you went away,” she surmised, seeing the hand of Tarsis in it all.
“Yes; I received a message from you.”
“Ah, where?”
“At Rome. It was handed to me by the station-master on my arrival.”
“And you made no answer to that?”
“None was required. It had only three words; but those were enough to make me happy indeed, for they dispelled all fear that your strength might fail at the last.”
“And those three words?”
“You said, ‘All is well.’”
“No; it was not that,” she laughed; and with a gaiety which he understood n
