"It is not hidden, Alban, it is just as I said it would be."
"And you did not love me less because of it?"
"I should never have loved you less, whatever you had done."
"I shall remind you of that when we are in England together."
"That will never be, Alban dear, unless my father is free."
She repeated it again and again. Her manner of speaking had now become that of one who understood that this was a last farewell.
"You cannot help us," she said, "why should you suffer because we must? In England there's a great future before you as Mr. Gessner's adopted son. I shall never hear of it, but I shall be proud because I know the world will talk about you. That will be something to take with me, dear, something they can never rob me of, whatever happens. When you remember who Lois was, say that she is thinking of you in Russia far away. They cannot separate us, dear Alban, while we love."
He had no word to answer this and could but harp again upon all the promise of his fine resolution. When the matter-of-fact official came to find him, Lois was close in his embrace and there were tears of regret in his eyes.