letter you have just read. You understand what I mean?"

The Warden moved on his seat uneasily.

"Belinda speaks of your _engagement_ to Gwendolen," said Lady Dashwood,
and her voice this time demanded an answer.

"I am not engaged," he said, turning his eyes to his sister's face
slowly, "but, I am pledged to marry her--if it is her wish."

Lady Dashwood's eyes quavered.

"Is it your wish?" she asked.

The Warden rose from his chair as if to go.

"I can't discuss the matter further, Lena. I cannot tell you more. I had
no right, I had no reason, for telling you anything before, because
nothing had been concluded--it may not be concluded. It depends on her,
and she has not spoken to me decisively."

He moved away from the table.

"You haven't finished your coffee, your sandwiches," said Lady Dashwood,
to give herself time, and to help her to self-control. Oh, why had he
put himself and his useful life in the hands of a mere child--a child
who would never become a real woman? Why did he deliberately plan his
own martyrdom?

"I don't want any more," he said, "and I have letters to write."

"Jim," she called to him gently, "tell me at least--if you are
happy--whether----"

"I can't talk just now--not just now, Lena," he said.

"But Belinda takes the matter as settled--otherwise the letter is not
merely absurd--but outrageous!"

The Warden hesitated in his slow stride towards the door.

"I am not going to have Belinda here on Saturday. There is no room for
her. She can't come till May has gone." Lady Dashwood spoke this in a
firm, rapid voice.

"That is for you to decide," he said. "You are mistress here."

He was moving again when she said in a voice full of pain: "You say you
can't talk just now, you can't speak to me of what is happening to you,
of what may happen to you, when you, next to John, are more to me than
anything else in the world. What happens to you means happiness or
misery to me, and yet you _can't talk_!"

The Warden was arrested, stood still, and turned towards her.

"You owe me some consideration, Jim. I have no children, you have been a
son as well as a brother to me. I can have no peace of mind, no joy in
life if things go wrong with you. Yes, I repeat it--if things go wrong
with you. I was your mother, Jim, for many years, and yet you say you
can't discuss something that is of supreme importance! You are willing
to go out of this room and leave me to spend a night sleepless with