tands and lighted; then she went out
without glancing at anyone. Mary was sitting in the window seat, so the
curtains remained undrawn, and there was a mystical compound of twilight
and candle-light in the room.

She had a flash of metaphor, and saw in it the meeting of the old and
new religions; the type of these two men, of whom the light of one was
fading, and the other waxing. The candlelight fell full on Ralph's face
that stood out against the whitewashed wall behind.

Then she listened and watched with an intent interest.

* * * * *

"It is this," said Sir James, "we heard you were here--"

Ralph smiled with one side of his mouth, so that his father could see
it.

"I do not wish to do anything I should not," went on the old man, "or to
meddle in his Grace's matters--"

"And you wish me not to meddle either, sir," put in Ralph.

"Yes," said his father. "I am very willing to receive you and your wife
at home; to make any suitable provision; to give you half the house if
you wish for it; if you will only give up this accursed work."

He was speaking with a tranquil deliberation; all the emotion and
passion seemed to have left his voice; but Mary, from behind, could see
his right hand clenched like a vice upon the knob of his chair-arm. It
seemed to her as if the two men had suddenly frozen into
self-repression. Their air was one of two acquaintances talking, not of
father and son.

"And if not, sir?" asked Ralph with the same courtesy.

"Wait," said his father, and he lifted his hand a moment and dropped it
again. He was speaking in short, sharp sentences. "I know that you have
great things before you, and that I am asking much from you. I do not
wish you to think that I am ignorant of that. If nothing else will do I
am willing to give up the house altogether to you and your wife. I do
not know about your mother."

Mary drew her breath hard. The words were like an explosion in her soul,
and opened up unsuspected gulfs. Things must be desperate if her father
could speak like that. He had not hinted a word of this during that
silent strenuous ride they had had together when he had called for her
suddenly at Great Keynes earlier in the afternoon. She saw Ralph give a
quick stare at his father, and drop his eyes again.

"You are very generous, sir," he said almost immediately, "but I do not
ask for a bribe."

"You--you are unlike your master in that, then," said Sir James b