He slammed the door after this announcement, and
Enoch took Diana in his arms and kissed her passionately.
"Good-by, Diana."
"Good-by, Enoch!" and the last golden moment was gone.
Enoch had no very clear recollection of his farewells to Na-che and
Frank. Outwardly calm and collected, within he was a tempest. He
obeyed Jonas automatically, went to his berth at once, and toward dawn
fell asleep to the rumble of the train. The trip across the continent
was accomplished without untoward incident. Enoch was, of course,
recognized by the trainmen, but he kept to the stateroom that Jonas had
procured and refused to see the reporters who boarded the train at
Kansas City and again at Chicago. After the first twenty-four hours of
grief over the parting with Diana, Enoch began to recover his mental
poise. He was able to crowd back some of his sorrow and to begin to
contemplate his whole adventure. Nor could he contemplate it without
beginning to exult, and little by little his spirits lifted and even
the tragedy of giving up Diana became a sacred and a beautiful thing.
His grief became a righteous part of his life, a thing he would not
give up any more than he would have given up a joy.
Undoubtedly Jonas enjoyed this trip more than any railway journey of
his experience.
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