'Well?' He was thoughtlessly cutting a piece of cheese into small squares with the silver butter-knife. 'Only you must promise not to say a word to a soul.' 'I shall promise no such thing,' he said with uncompromising bluntness. She smiled charmingly upon him. 'Oh yes, Jack, you will, you must.' He seemed to be taken unawares by her sudden smile. 'Very well,' he said gruffly. She then told him, in the manner she thought best, of the relations between Ethel and Fred Ryley, and she pointed out to him that, if he had reflected at all upon the relations between Harry Burgess and Millicent, he would not have fallen into the error of connecting Milly, instead of her sister, with Fred. 'What relations between Milly and young Burgess?' he questioned stolidly. 'Why, Jack,' she said, 'you know as much as I do. Why does Harry come here so often?' 'He'd better not come here so often. What's Milly? She's nothing but a child.' Leonora made no attempt to argue with him. 'As for Ethel,' she said softly, 'she's at a difficult age, and you must be careful----' 'As for Ethel,' he interrupted, 'I'll turn Fred Ryley out of my office to-morrow.' She tried to look grave and sympathetic, to use all her tact. 'But won't that make difficulties with Uncle Meshach? And people might say you had dismissed him because Uncle Meshach had altered his will.' 'D----n Fred Ryley!' he swore, unable to reply to this. 'D----n him!' He walked to and fro in the room, and all his secret, profound resentment against Ryley surged up, loose and uncontrolled. 'Wouldn't it be better to take Ethel away from the works?' Leonora suggested. 'No,' he answered doggedly. 'Not for a moment! Can't I have my own daughter in my own office because Fred Ryley is on the place? A pretty thing!' 'It is awkward,' she admitted, as if admitting also that what puzzled his sagacity was of course too much for hers. 'Fred Ryley!' he repeated the hateful syllables bitterly. 'And I only took him out of kindness! Simply out of kindness! I tell you what, Leonora!' He faced her in a sort of bravado. 'It would serve 'em d----n well right if Uncle Meshach died to-morrow, and Aunt Hannah the day after. I should be safe then. It would serve them d----n well right, all of 'em--Ryley and Uncle Meshach; yes, and Aunt Hannah too! She hasn't altered her will, but she'd no business to have let uncle alter his. They're all in it. She's bound to die first, and they know it.... Well, well!' He was a resigned martyr now, and he turned towards the hearth. 'Jack!' she exclaimed, 'what's the matter?' 'Ruin's the matter,' he said. 'That's what's the matter. Ruin!' He laughed sourly, undecided whether to pretend that he was not quite serious, or to divulge his real condition. Her calm confident eyes silently invited him to relieve his mind, and he could not resist the temptation.