ou said the last time you came that you had
heard--that you knew--that you were afraid that Rachel and your
grandson, Mr. Breton, were--had been--seein' too much of one another.
You just put it to me, you know--Well," he went on, trying to make his
voice cheerful and ordinary and failing completely, "lyin' on one's back
one gets thinkin' and broodin', specially a feller who hasn't been used
to it, like me. I got worried--not because I didn't trust Rachel--and
Mr. Breton, of course, all the way, because I do; but simply that, you
know, it's rotten for a feller to be lyin' helpless on his back,
thinkin' that people are talkin' about his wife--you know how malicious
people are, Duchess--and I thought it jolly well must be stopped, don't
you know, and I wanted it stopped quick and straight and clean, and I
didn't see how it was goin' to be stopped unless I'd got us all friendly
together here and just squashed it, all of us. And so--well, to
speak--well, here we are.... And," he concluded, trying to smile upon
everyone present, "I do hope it's all right. It didn't seem then a poor
sort of thing to do, but somehow gettin' you all here as a surprise...."
He broke off, made noises in his throat, and felt that the room was of a
burning heat.

He remembered, vaguely, that he had designed this meeting as a
punishment to the old lady; he had only succeeded, however, in revealing
his own cowardice; the first glimpse of her had made a poor creature of
him. Oh! how he wished himself now well out of it! And yet, behind that
thought was the knowledge of the little speech that he was soon to make
and the way that, with it, he would win Rachel and hold her for ever!
After all, it came to that, absolutely: Rachel was the only thing in all
the world that mattered.

The Duchess flung upon him a kindly satiric glance, then, turning from
him, bent her sharp little eyes upon Rachel, leaning forward upon her
cane so that it appeared that it was now only with Rachel that she had
any concern.

"Had I known that my few careless words!"--She broke off with a little
impatient gesture.

"Ah! Rachel, my dear, I'm truly sorry. My stupidity...."

But Rachel, her eyes upon Roddy, had got up, had moved across to Roddy's
sofa, and stood there, above him. Her eyes moved, then, slowly to her
grandmother.

"There was no need," she said, her voice low and trembling, "for this.
If I'd done, as I should, it couldn't have happened. I'm responsible for
all