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A FEW HOURS IN A FAR-OFF AGE.
73

CHAPTER XI.

HERE is a very animated group! Amongst them are those with whom I passed my morning. No trace of the gloom their most unpleasant studies had caused them to feel so sadly. Bright glances and joyous sounds from all!

How changed are the two rebels, Syra Kaido and Frederick! If marriage were not forbidden to them for the next five or six years, I should think they would soon be "comrades." I am not sure if I have before told that wife and husband are here so designated; the old terms signifying master and servant having been abandoned ages ago.

There is my beautiful Veritée, laughing merrily at something her father has just said to her and her mother.

Now they all join the song and turn to leave. I will not again lose them.

Wottah runs after us with more of his nonsense—sung this time—and creates fresh hilarity between the young people.

We have descended the steps and I now see many entrances of the same size as the one by which I stood in the early morning.

We settle ourselves in a handsome, comfortably constructed carriage. Veritée moves a small handle—we rise, over the throngs of people, clear of the buildings, and away we go. Oh, the pleasurable feeling! Nothing has ever equalled it, save in dream travels. Mid-day song floating after us—very faintly now, more like whispered music. And