He walked over to the window, and drummed again, with restless, nervous
fingers, upon the _In hoc vince_ pane.

She came behind him, laying her hand on his shoulder.

"Darling, it will break my heart if you think I am failing you. But,
while you have been talking, I have faced the matter out, and--I must
tell you at once--I cannot feel it either right or possible to go. I
could not be away just now, for seven months. This place must be looked
after. Think of the little church we are building in the village; the
farms changing tenants this summer; the hundred and one things I, and I
only, must settle and arrange. You never see the bailiff; you hardly
know the tenants; you do not oversee the workpeople. So you can scarcely
judge, dear Ronnie, how important is my presence here; how almost
impossible it would be for me suddenly to go completely out of reach. My
darling--if you keep to it, if you really intend to go, we must face the
fact that it will mean, for us, a long parting."

The tension of suspense held the stillness of the room.

Then: "It is my profession," said Ronald West, huskily. "It is my
career."

She moved round and faced him. They stood looking at one another,
dumbly.

She knew all that was in his mind, and most that was in his heart.

He knew nothing of that which filled her mind at the moment, and only