"it
may again be an accident that I happened on Eli Tregarthen less than an
hour ago, and that he used very insolent language to me in the presence
of my agent."

"It was not only an accident," said Vashti, slowly, and with patent
sincerity; "it was one that, since I came here to urge his suit, I
would have given a great deal to prevent." She paused, and for a moment
seemed to be musing. "Must I understand, then, that you refuse to hear
a word in his favour?"

"The man is a fool!" Sir Caesar clasped his hands behind him under his
coat-tails, and paced the room. "His insolence to me apart, he is a
complete fool! I offer him the choice of two farms--either one of them
acre for acre, worth twice the rental of Saaron.... I simply cannot
understand!"

"No," said Vashti, with a little sigh, "you cannot understand."

He had reached the fireplace, and wheeled round on her, his back to the
hearth and his legs a-straddle.

"What can I not understand?" he demanded.

"Many things." Vashti met his eyes for a moment, then turned her own to
the window and the blue waterways beyond the terrace, beyond the massed
tree-tops of the pleasure grounds. "Many things, and the Islands in
particular. You did not understand just now that a soldier, though
condemned to stand sentry in a forgotten outpost, can still be
sensitive for the honour of his service, because the root of his life
lies there. You cannot understand that the root of Eli Tregarthen's
life goes down into the soil he has tilled from childhood as his
parents tilled it. To you Garrison Hill is a tumble-down fort, and
Saaron Island a barren rock; yet you call them yours, because you have
purchased them. And, nevertheless--to do you justice--you are not one
who rates everything by its price in money. If you were, I could beg
you to take a higher rent for Saaron and leave Eli Tregarthen
undisturbed."

He shook his head. "The man pays me a fair rent; as much as I can
conscientiously ask. I have a conscience, Miss Cara, and a sense of
responsibility. It is not good that Tregarthen lets his children run
wild there, so far from school."

"And if, sir," she went on, "you are doing this for the children's
sake, I could promise you that there are means to educate them better
than any children on the Islands. But the difficulty does not lie with
the children. It lies in your sense of possession, which makes Saaron
Farm there"--she waved a hand--"an eyesore in the view from this
w