“Of course,” sighed Betty, “it would have been the hardest thing in the world to have you go away; but if you wanted to go, dear George, and it was best for you, _I_ would have given you up, and I would have tried not to cry when you went away, and I would have thought of you every single day while you were away, and if you had not come home for ten years, or twenty years, I would have loved you just as much as ever.”