er day, or walks about it for hours and
hours, without ever opening a book or looking at a thing. Or
else he walks about the woods--sometimes quite late at night.
Forest believes he sleeps very little. I told you he never came
to Desmond's funeral. All business he hands over to Elizabeth,
and what she asks him he generally does. But we all have vague,
black fears about him. I know Elizabeth has. Yet she is quite
clear she can't stay here much longer. Dear Arthur, I don't
know exactly what happened, but I _think_ father asked her to
marry him, and she said no. And I am tolerably sure that I
counted for a good deal in it--horrid wretch that I am!--that
she thought it would make me unhappy.

'Well, I am properly punished. For if or when she goes
away--and you and I are married--if there is to be any marrying
any more in this awful world!--what will become of my father?
He has been a terrifying mystery to me all my life. Now it is
not that any longer. I know at least that he worshipped
Desmond. But I know also that I mean nothing to him. I don't
honestly think it was much my fault--and it can't be helped.
And nobody else in the family matters. The only person who does
matter is Elizabeth. And I quite see that she can't stay here
indefinitely. She told me she promised Desmond she would stay
as long as she could. Just at present, of course, she is the
mainspring of everything on the estate. And they have actually
made her this last week Vice-Chairman of the County War
Agricultural Committee. She refused, but they _made_ her. Think
of that--a woman--with all those wise men! She asked father's
leave. He just looked at her, and I saw the tears come into her
eyes.

'As to Beryl and Aubrey, he was here last Sunday, and she spent
the day with us. He seems to lean upon her in a new way--and
she looks different somehow--happier, I think. He told me, the
day after Desmond died, that Dezzy had said something to him
that had given him courage--"courage to go on," I think he
said. I didn't ask him what he meant, and he didn't tell me.
But I am sure he has told Beryl, and either that--or something
else--has made her more confident in herself--and about him.
They are to be married quite soon. Last week father sent him,
without a word, a copy of his w