at is true; but you may very well imagine that I dread what she will
say of Margaret. We have never had a serious difference, and now it is
to come. I shall talk to her to-morrow."

"No, now. Get it over, sir. Get it over. I must go home again soon, and
I want to see you married. Go now at once and get it over."

"I suppose that will be as well."

He went slowly up the winding staircase which was so remarkable a
feature of the finer Georgian houses. Suddenly he was aware in the
darkness of Margaret on the landing above him.

"Don't stop me," she said.

"What is wrong!" he asked.

"Everything. I told thee thy mother would know. She sent for me. I went.
She was cruel--cruel--hard."

"What, dear, did she say?"

"I shall not tell thee. She insulted me and my mother. Ah, but she
said--no, I shall not tell thee, nor mother. She sent for me, and I
went. I had to tell her. Oh, I said that--that--I told her--I do not
know what I told her." She was on the edge of her first almost
uncontrollable loss of self-government. It alarmed her pride, and at
once becoming calm, she added, "I told her that it was useless to talk
to me, to say that it must end, that thou wouldst obey her. I--I just
laughed; yes, I did. And I told her she did not yet know her own
son--and--that some day she would regret what she had said to me, and,
Rene, of my mother. I do not care--"

"But I care, Margaret. I was this moment on my way to tell her."

"Let me pass. I hope thou art worth what I have endured for thy sake.
Let me pass." He went by her, troubled and aware that he too needed to
keep himself in hand. When he entered his mother's room he found her
seated by the feeble candle-light, a rose of the never-finished
embroidery growing under her thin, skilful fingers.

For her a disagreeable matter had been decisively dealt with and put
aside; no trace of emotion betrayed her self-satisfaction at having
finally settled an unpleasant but necessary business.

In the sweet, low voice which seemed so out of relation to her severity
of aspect, she said: "Sit down. I have been left to learn from the young
woman of this entanglement. I should have heard it from you, or never
have had to hear it at all."

"Mother, I have been in very great trouble of late. That my disaster did
trouble you so little has been painful to me. But this is far worse. I
waited to feel at ease about the other affair before I spoke to you of
my intention to marry Miss Swanwi