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hand and looking at Alfred.
    â€œYes, there is something to be done there. My father’s consent must be sought and gained before we go any further. Father, you have no objection to Hereward as a son?”
    â€œNone to him as a son. As my daughter’s husband it is hard to be sure. He asks, as he says, more than other men. Is he to give any more? You have a stable nature;I have valued it, my dear. He is more uncertain, and, as I should judge, could be carried away. If there are risks in the future, are they his or yours?”
    â€œThey are mine, Father. I face them with open eyes. I am prepared to give some quarter. I don’t feel I am so much in myself. I am hardly on the level of Hereward and Zillah, and am not unwilling to redress the balance.”
    â€œAs your father I can hardly support that account.”
    â€œNor can I,” said Hereward. “I accept it even less than you. I don’t ask you to trust me with your daughter. That is asking much. If she will trust herself to me, I will accept and fulfil the trust. I think it is for her to judge.”
    â€œI have judged, Father,” said Ada.
    â€œThen I have no more to say. But I have meant what I said. I hope you will never have to remember my saying it. Well, so the change is to come. And I am not to lose my daughter. And to welcome the son I have not had. I can say with Ada that there is only advantage for me there.”
    â€œYou are to have more than a son, Father. You will have a fellow-worker. There will be a healthy rivalry. The scholar and the novelist pitted against each other. With me as the intermediary, ensuring that it remains healthy. Well, it is a character I can fill. It is the sort of secondary one that fits me. Indeed all the parts I am to play will be suited to myself. I need feel no qualm.”
    â€œHow you think of yourself, Hereward!” said Emmeline. “You forget that Ada has a sister. She does not like you any better than me, and you will not have the whole of her. I shall often be with her, whether you want me or not.”
    â€œAnd with me too, Emmeline,” said Hereward, drawing her to him. “You will be with both of us. I shall be your brother. Don’t you know that is part of it to me?”
    â€œOh, what a sister to have!” said Ada. “If our places were reversed, should I have had this welcome? I doubt it. Indeed, I can imagine the difference. It may be a salutary exercise for me. Oh, I expect you will have littleinterchanges of your own. Well, I will not grudge them to you.”
    â€œThen you and I will have them,” said Zillah. “We will have as many, and they will both grudge them.”
    â€œAh, the kind of word I was waiting for! I hesitated to say it myself, in case it should not come first from me. But coming from you, it is the very one for me. I am the last person to put the man before the woman. I am a staunch upholder of my own sex. You may not be sure if I justify my own opinion. In the case of this little sprite there will be no doubt.”
    â€œIt is the life before you and me, that is in my mind, Ada,” said Hereward. “And I hope in yours.”
    â€œYes, it is in mine. Too deep down to take form in words. Not that we can enter on it on quite equal terms. That is a thing that cannot be. Mine is an open sheet, with everything written on it plainly for your eyes. Yours will have its spaces and erasures. A man’s life is not a woman’s. I am not a woman to expect it. Oh, they are metaphorical sheets, little Emmeline, but none the less real for that. As you will understand, when you have things written on your own. At present it must be a blank.”
    â€œShe and I will write on it,” said Hereward, smiling. “We shall find our words.”
    â€œOh, I expect you will,” said Ada, with a sigh. “I shall be out of it sometimes. I am prepared. It is no new thing. She and Father indulge in companionship that I