i found the coming in search of me she pushed open the door of my bedroom which was next to the room in which the children had slept come in here she said i have something to tell you i have not had a chance before of saying anything to you i won t burden you with my thanks only my friendship i just want to say thank you once and then have done with it as far as talking goes my acts dear will speak for themselves i hope and i want you to accept this and to wear it for my sake in the memory of a deed of a broken heart healed and made whole again she put upon one of my fingers a very large diamond ring � i mean that it had a very large diamond surrounded by smaller it was thickly set in a smooth setting almost like that which is called i cried out in my astonishment at the beautiful gift it is too good r i said the magic wheel nothing could be too good it is merely a small token i chose it in that form because i thought you could wear it always and keep me in your memory and partly as an omen that my crooked story has come straight and to give you hope that yours might come so too francis hasn t joined me in this which is from me alone he wishes to show you his gratitude in another way � in quite another way his idea is to help you to find your husband oh but the time did seem so long the days went by and nothing was done the duke haunted the other house but in spite of all his influence he could not bring up to any decision at last when the new year had come and gone he came to me one day in what was for him a very bad temper mrs he said i have been down to see again the fellow s no good he s not trusted by his party and he has no personal influence at all i can t think how they ever came to make him first lord of the the man s an ass he continued thrusting his hands into his pockets and s hope deferred walking about the room he s an ass and a and a fool the worst of it is i can t tell anybody outside � either him or anybody else and it s quite hopeless duke i suppose he must have heard the intense disappointment in my tones for he turned round quickly and seized hold of my hands it s quite hopeless so far as the government is concerned he replied in a brisk business like sort of voice but bless my life heart and soul mrs the government isn t everybody i have pressed the point very hard because i thought it might be better for your husband and it might be better for other naval men who get lost sight of in the same kind of way � it might in fact create a precedent � but you see the unfortunate part of it is government won t recognize our sources of information they won t see that there may be something in they won t an inch without some definite and distinct evidence which as that ass puts it will justify the expenditure of public money such the magic wheel and i must give it up i said in a choking voice by no means my dear friend give it up anything else no i came round to day because i see that it is hopeless to try and get any official help therefore why waste time any longer the wife and i have only been waiting this decision of s or his department or whatever it is to make our own plans fit in with yours we have always intended to take a long tour my wife is a splendid sailor and loves the sea the children have never been ill in their lives now i came to day to tell you that we shall be very glad to make this search the object of a long sea voyage in our own and i have come in my wife s name and my own to invite you to accompany us as soon as the can be fitted out and we can get away and make a start the magnitude of this offer positively took my breath away do you realize what all this means i asked yes perfectly well we have been round the world before it s no great things tons hope deferred would rather go on such a voyage fifty times over than she would spend one season round the and running up against half the uninteresting people we know then we may take it as a settled thing and make our arrangements for getting oflf without the delay of a single day i did not realize then what getting off without the delay of a single day meant when the duke left me i had a wild idea that we should leave london i mean england in about a week s time but when they came to inquire into the condition of the a great deal had to be done before a long journey could be undertaken the short january days crept away one by one february came in and february went out the duke and talked of little or nothing else when i saw them you see they were fitting the out for a year s and the arrangements which had to be made seemed to me almost careful in their of detail so the days crept on � crept dragged and i did indeed taste the full bitterness of the verse which says � hope deferred the the magic wheel heart sick there was such a choosing 