done, from
the moment we had the good luck to pick you out of the bay at Clifden.
Lord Westerham also wants you, so do I. That, put plainly, brutally, if
you like, is the situation. Of your own feelings, of course, I do not
pretend to have the remotest idea; but I confess that when this
knowledge came to me, the first thought that crossed my mind was the
thought of you as another man's wife--and then came the vision of the
world in flames. At first I chose the world in flames. I see that I was
wrong. That is all."

She had not interrupted even by a gesture, but as she listened, a
thousand signs and trifles which alone had meant nothing to her, now
seemed to come together and make one clear and definite revelation. This
strong, reserved, silent man had all the time loved her so desperately
that he was going mad about her--so mad that, as he had said, he had
even dreamed of weighing the possession of her single, insignificant
self against the safety of the whole world, with all its innumerable
millions of people--mostly as good in their way as she was.

Well--it might be that the love of such a man was a thing worth to weigh
even against a coronet--not in her eyes, for there was no question of
that now, but in her father's. But that was a matter for future
consideration. She drew herself up a little stiffly, and said, in just
such a tone as she might have used if what he had just been saying had
had no personal interest for her--had, in fact, been about some other
girl:

"I think it's about time to be going down to the house, Mr Lennard,
isn't it? I am quite sure a night's rest won't do you any harm. No, I'm
not offended, and I don't think I'm even frightened yet. It somehow
seems too big and too awful a thing to be only frightened at--too much
like the Day of Judgment, you know. I am glad you've told me--yes,
everything--and I'm glad that what you call your madness is over. You
will be able to do your work in saving the world all the better. Only
don't tell dad anything except--well--just the scientific and necessary
part of it. You know, saving a world is a very much greater matter than
winning a woman--at least it is in one particular woman's eyes--and
I've learnt somewhere in mathematics something about the greater
including the less. And now, don't you think we had better be going down
into the house? It's getting quite late."

CHAPTER VI

THE NOTE OF WAR

The _Official Gazette_, published November t