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of me without a qualm.”
    This talk was proceeding, as the latter brother and sister went home.
    â€œYou are sure, Hereward? It was the work of a moment. It is to last to the end. It will change your daily life. You need to be sure, if you will ever need to.”
    â€œYes, I am sure. I want to marry. I feel the urge, and it is time. Ada is goodhearted and will adapt her life tomine. She will accept our parents. She will be content with what I can give. There is much that I like about her. I need not say all that it is. She may hardly be a friend for you, but she will leave us our friendship. That is a condition I must make, and could not make with every woman. We are not asking nothing, Zillah. We can hardly ask more.”
    â€œShould you not have more? For yourself, if not for me? More for the years ahead? More foundation for all that is to come? Is it a better future for me than for you? I see it takes less from me than any other.”
    â€œThen it is the one for me. I will have nothing taken from you. No relation shall supersede our own. That is the one I will not do without. Only the woman to leave it to us can be my wife. I could not live with any other, would not ask her to live with me. My work is hard and never-ending. It will never end. I could not have another taskmistress. I serve only the one.”
    â€œHow will you put it to our parents? Not in that way.”
    â€œNo. You will put it for me as you please.”
    Zillah led the way to Sir Michael and his wife.
    â€œI bring you some news. You are prepared for part. If you claim to have foreseen the rest, you must prove it.”
    Sir Michael spoke in a moment.
    â€œMy Zillah, I am prepared and not prepared. I knew it must come some day. And you have been going with your brother to the house. You act together, as you always do. And Merton is a good fellow and a good father. And as he has been a good husband, he will be so again. And if he was younger and not a widower, he would not be the man you choose. We cannot decide for other people, however near they may be. Joanna, come and wish our daughter all that is good. It is what she has always given.”
    â€œNo, it is I who claim your feeling,” said his son. “That is, if you have any over for me. It is Ada, not her father, who is to join our family. She is to be yourdaughter as well as his. Zillah will remain with me. I could not lose her. I was startled by the picture that you drew.”
    â€œThen my congratulations, my son,” said Sir Michael, holding out his hand. “We rejoice with you, if you rejoice. And of course you do. Your time has come for it. I remember when my own time came. And it is a good girl whom you have chosen, whom fate has thrown in your way. We must choose from the people we meet. We hunt in our own demesne. And the long friendship is a safeguard. It atones for not breaking up new ground. Ah, it is great news, the greatest we could have. It is true to say that words fail me, as I find they do.”
    â€œI am not quite sure they did,” murmured Joanna. “Of course a mother’s feelings are too deep for words. How sad it would be, if they were not!”
    â€œYou feel it is a humdrum marriage,” said Hereward. “It may mean it is the one for me. It breaks no ground, as is said. I use my energy for other ends. It is safe and open and sound. It carries no doubt and no risk. It will not separate Zillah and me. We will leave you to see it as it is, as she and I and Ada see it.”
    â€œMichael, we have failed,” said Joanna. “Failed our son in a crisis of his life. But it did not seem like a crisis, when it depended on dear Ada Merton. What do we feel about it? Well, you have said.”
    â€œI believe I did almost say it. I was taken by surprise. I wish I could re-live that moment. And that blunder I made about Zillah! What a thing to have said and unsaid! I wish I could undo it. Not that any harm is done. She and