amily council?" said Garrett rather impatiently. "We have
had a generous supply lately."

"I'm afraid this is imperative," said Harry. "I am sorry to bother
you, Clare, but this seems to me the best time."

"Oh, any time suits me," she said indifferently, sitting down
reluctantly. "But if it's household affairs, I should think that we
need hardly keep Garrett and Robin."

"It is something that concerns us all four," said Harry. "I am going
to be married!"

It had been from the beginning of things a Trojan dictum that the
revealing of emotion was the worst of gaucheries--Clare, Garrett, and
Robin himself had been schooled in this matter from their respective
cradles; and now the lesson must be put into practice.

For Robin, of course, it was no revelation at all, but he dared not
look at his aunt; he understood a little what it must mean to her. To
those that watched her, however, nothing was revealed. She stood by
the fire, her hands at her side, her head slightly turned towards her
brother.

"Might I ask," she said quietly, "the name of the fortunate lady?"

"Miss Bethel!"

"Miss Bethel!" Garrett sprang to his feet. "Harry, you must be
joking! You can't mean it! Not the daughter of Bethel at the
Point--the madman!--the----"

"Please, Garrett," said Harry, "remember that she has promised to be my
wife. I am sorry, Clare----"

He turned round to his sister.

But she had said nothing. She pulled a chair from the table and sat
down, quietly, without obvious emotion.

"It is a little unexpected," she said. "But really if we had
considered things it was obvious enough. It is all of a piece. Robin
tried for Breach of Promise, the Bethels in the house before father has
been buried for three days--the policy and traditions of the last three
hundred years upset in three weeks."

"Of course," said Harry, "I could scarcely expect you to welcome the
change. You do not know Miss Bethel. I am afraid you are a little
prejudiced against her. And, indeed, please--please, believe me that
it has been my very last wish to go counter in any way to your own
plans. But it has seemed almost unavoidable; we have found that one
thing after another has arisen about which we could not agree. Is it
too late now to reconsider the position? Couldn't we pull together
from this moment?"

But she interrupted him. "Come, Harry," she said, "whatever we are,
let us avoid hypocrisy. You have beaten me at every point