A Long ‘fourney 161

any rate, it was on her birthday he chose
to tell her.

They were in the garden again, and
Doris had been showing him her daffodils,
which had opened under the shadow of
the hedge, long after their brothers in the
sunlight had bloomed and withered.

“Do you know, Doris, I am going away
soon?” said the Visitor.

“QO,” said Doris, “I was wondering
when you would tell me that.”

“But

“You always do go away soon. But,
then, you always come back.”

“Yes,” said the Visitor, ‘I suppose I
shall come back. But I am going a long
way, across the sea there, to a country so
far off, that if you were here of a morning
in your garden and wanted me, and if you
called me and I could hear, it would be
deep night by the time your voice reached
me. ; am going to the other side of the
world.’

Doris did not answer for a moment
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