"In winter, perhaps, a little, when there is much rain." And then there was a long pause. When they came within sight of the pond, which glistened under the moonlight, reflecting all the trees in irregular masses, and showing here and there a big white water-lily bud couched upon a dark bank of leaves, he spoke again: "I don't think it can be very healthy, either, to have the pond so near the house." "You have always had your health, all of you," she said. "That is true; but not very much of it. We are a subdued sort of family, mother." "That is because the Warrenders----" She stopped here, feeling the inappropriateness of what she was about to say. It very often happens that a wife has but little opinion of the race to which her husband belongs. She attributes the defects of her own children to that side instinctively. "It is character," she said, "not health." "But all the same, if we had a little more air and a little less shade----" He was becoming bolder as he went on. "Theo," she said tremulously, "it is too soon to begin to talk of that." And then there was a pause again. When they came to the edge of the pond, and stopped to look at the water-lilies, and at the white flood of the moonlight, and all the clustering masses of the trees that hung round as if to keep it hidden and sheltered, it was she who spoke: "Your father was very fond of this view. Almost the last time he was out we brought him here. He sat down for a long time, and was quite pleased. He cared for beautiful things much more than he ever said." The thought that passed through Theo's mind was very rapid, that it might well be so, seeing nothing was ever said on the subject; but his remark was, "Very likely, mother," in a soft and soothing voice. "I should be very sorry to see any--I mean I hope you will not make much alteration here." "It is too soon," he said hastily, "to speak of that." "Much too soon," she replied, with a quick sense of shame, taking her son's arm as they turned back. Even to turn back made the burden heavier, and dispelled the little advantage which they had got by the walk. "There will be, I suppose, a great number of people--on Friday." "Yes, I think a great number; everybody about." "What a nuisance! People might have sense enough to know that at such a moment we don't want a lot of strange faces peering at us, finding out how we bear up." "My dear, it would have pleased him to know everybody would be there." "I suppose so," said Theo, in a tone which was half angry and half resigned. "We will have to take a little thought how they are to go. Lord Markland must come first, after the relations." "Why? They never took much notice of us, and my father never liked him. I don't see why he should come at all." "Oh yes, he will come, and your dear father would have liked it. The Warrenders have always thought a great deal of such things." "I am a Warrender, I hope, and I don't."