d. Geoff----"

She looked at him, with a sudden catching of her breath. She had no
expectation of a sudden invasion of the practical into the vague
satisfaction of the pause, which kept Geoff still by his mother's side.
And yet she knew that it was her duty to listen, to accept any
reasonable suggestion that might be made.

"There was that question,--between a school and a tutor," he said. "I
have been thinking a great deal about it. We settled, you remember, that
to send him away to school would be too much; not good for himself, as
he is delicate: and for you it would be hard. You would miss him
dreadfully."

"Miss him!" she said. As if these common words could express the
vacancy, the blank solitude, into which her life without Geoff would
settle down!

"But it seems to me now that there is another side to the question," he
continued, with what seemed to Lady Markland a pitiless persistency. "A
tutor here would be too much in your way. You would not like to let
him live by himself altogether. His presence would be a constant
embarrassment. You could not have him with you, nor could you, for
Geoff's sake, keep him quite at a distance."

She held out her hands to stop this too clear exposition. "Don't!" she
cried. "Do you think I have not considered all that? You only make me
see the difficulties more and more clearly, and I see them so clearly
already. But what am I to do?"

"Dear Lady Markland," he said, rising from his chair, "I want to propose
something to you." The young man had grown so pale, yet by moments
flushed so suddenly, and had altogether such an air of agitation and
passionate earnestness, that a certain alarm flashed into her mind. The
word had an ominous sound. Could he be thinking--was it possible---- She
felt a hot flush of shame and a cold shiver of horror and fear at the
thought, which after all was not a thought, but only a sharp pang of
fright, which went through her like an arrow. He saw that she looked
nervously at him, but that was easily explained by what had gone before.

"It is this," he said. "It is quite simple; it will cost nobody anything,
and give a great deal of pleasure to me. I want you to let _me_ be
Geoff's tutor. Wait a moment before you answer. It will be no trouble.
I have absolutely nothing to do. My father left all his affairs in
complete order; all my farms are let, everything going on quite smoothly.
And you must remember our little bit of a place is very different