‘In that case why send for me? I thought you wanted to bring matters to a crisis.’ ‘Why, so I do. Yet at the thought of her anger I grow the veriest coward. Banishment from her means such unutterable misery, and to offend her is to provoke the sentence of banishment.’ ‘If she is as good and true as you believe, and as I too believe her to be, she will not be offended by your candour. She may have a confession to make to you which she could hardly make unasked; but which, once being made, might clear away all doubt, remove every impediment to your happiness.’ ‘You are right. Yes, I will hazard all. What is that old verse? “He either fears his fate too much, Or his desert is small, Who dares not put it to the touch, To gain or lose it all.” Just imagine my feelings on the twelfth, Lucius, when I thought of my collection of guns going to rust, and those Norwegian hills that I had made up my mind to shoot over this very August.’ ‘Bravely said, Geoff. And now I will do my uttermost to aid you. I think that I may have some small influence with Mrs. Bertram. Her gratitude exaggerated the trifling service I did her sick child. I will write her a letter; as your friend I can say much more than you could say for yourself. You shall deliver it into her hands, and then ask her, in the simplest, plainest words, to tell you whether she loves or does not love you; and, if she owns to caring for you a little, why it is she rejects your love. I think you will come at the truth then.’ ‘You will write to her!’ cried Geoffrey aghast. ‘You, almost a stranger!’ ‘How can I be a stranger when she thinks I saved her child’s life? Come, Geoffrey, if I am to help you I must go to work in my own way. Give Mrs. Bertram my letter, and I’ll answer for it, she will give you her confidence.’ Geoffrey looked at his friend with the gaze of suspicion. Yet, after entreating his aid, he could hardly reject it, even if the manner of it seemed clumsy and undiplomatic. ‘Very well, I’ll do it. Only, I must say, it strikes me as a hazardous business. Write your letter; but for heaven’s sake remember she is a woman of a most sensitive nature, a most delicate mind! I implore you not to offend her.’ ‘I know more of her mind than you do,—by the light of psychology.’ ‘Very likely,’ replied Geoffrey rather gloomily. ‘But you haven’t hung upon her words or studied her looks day after day as I have done. Psychology is an uncommonly easy way of getting at a woman’s mind if you know much of her after a single interview. However, write your letter, and I’ll deliver it. I can cut my throat if it makes her angry.’ ‘One does not cut one’s throat at seven-and-twenty,’ said Lucius coolly. ‘And now, Geoff, if you have no objection, I should not be sorry to bend my steps towards your hotel with a view to refreshment. We seem to have wandered rather far afield.’