"Dear, Mr. Williams comes to-morrow. They have given him a fortnight's holiday. He has had a sharp attack of illness and depression, and wants change. Will you feel it too long?" Involuntarily her look darkened. She put down the letter without reading it. "Why--I want to see him! I--I shall make a study of him," she said with some constraint. But by this time Helbeck was half through the contents of his next envelope. She heard an exclamation of disgust, and he threw down what he held with vehemence. "One can trust nobody!" he said--"_nobody!_" He began to pace the floor with angry energy, his hands thrust into his pockets. She--in astonishment--threw him questions which he hardly seemed to hear. Suddenly he paused. "Dear Laura!--will you forgive me?--but after all I must sell that picture!" "Why?" "I hear to-day, for the first time, who is to be the real purchaser of that land, and why it is wanted. It is to be the site of a new Anglican church and vicarage. I have been tricked throughout--tricked--and deceived! But thank God it is not too late! The circumstances of this afternoon were providential. There is still time for me to write to Whinthorpe." He glanced at the clock. "And my lawyers may tear up the contract when they please!" "And--that means--you will sell the Romney?" said Laura slowly. "I must! Dear little one!"--he came to stoop over her--"I am most truly grieved. But I am bound to my orphans by all possible engagements--both of honour and conscience." "Why is it so horrible that an Anglican church should be built on your land?" she said, slightly holding him away from her. "Because I am responsible for the use of my land, as for any other talent. It shall not be used for the spread of heresy." "Are there any Catholics near it?" "Not that I know of. But it has been a fixed principle with me throughout my life"--he spoke with a firm and, as she thought, a haughty decision--"to give no help, direct or indirect, to a schismatical and rebellious church. I see now why there has been so much secrecy! My land is of vital importance to them. They apparently feel that the whole Anglican development of this new town may depend upon it. Let them feel it. They shall not have a foot--not an inch of what belongs to me!" "Then they are to have no church," said Laura. She had grown quite pale. "Not on my land," he said, with a violence that first amazed and then offended her. "Let them find sympathisers of their own. They have filched enough from us Catholics in the past." And he resumed his rapid walk, his face darkened with an anger he vainly tried to curb. Never had she seen him so roused. She too rose, trembling a little. "But I love that picture!" she said. "I beg you not to sell it." He stopped, in distress. "Unfortunately, dear, I have promised the money. It must be found within six weeks--and I see no other way." She thought that he spoke stiffly, and she resented the small effect of her appeal.