’No, certainly not. But I should like to see you and Kate well married, Kate to Larry Nanspian and Chimsworthy, and you—well, you equally well placed. Then you might combine to help me to my own. Consider this, Honor! If we had Coombe Park, all our troubles would clear like clouds before a setting sun. Charles would no longer be a trouble to us. He shows his gentle blood by dislike for work. If he were not forced to labour he would make a proper gentleman. Why then, Honor, what a satisfaction to you to have been the saving, the making of your brother!’ ’_Then_ won’t stand on the feet of _If_,’ said Honor. ’It depends on you.’ ’How on me?’ she rested her hands on her lap, and looked steadily at her father. He unravelled his lash with nervous hands. Honor saw that they shook. Then without turning his eyes from his plaiting, he said timidly, ’I only thought how well it would be for us if you were at Langford.’ ’How can I be at Langford? Mrs. Veale is the housekeeper, and I do not wish for her place.’ ’Oh no, not her place—not her place by any means,’ said her father. ’What other place then?’ she was resolved to force him to speak out, though she guessed his meaning. He did not answer her immediately. He looked at the ’flopadocks’ through the front door, then he looked to see if there was a way of escape open by the back. ’I—I thought—that is to say—I hoped—you might fancy to become Mrs. Langford.’ Honor rose proudly from her seat, and placed her needlework in the chair. She stood in the doorway, with the illumined hedge behind her. If Oliver had looked at her face he could not have seen it; he would have seen only the dark head set on a long and upright neck, with a haze of golden brown about it. But he did not look up; he drew a long breath. The worst was over. He had spoken, and Honor knew all. In the morning the carrier had flattered himself it would be easy to tell Honor, but when he prepared to come to the point he found it difficult. He knew that the proposal would offend his daughter, that it would not appear to her in the light in which he saw it. He was afraid of her, as an inferior nature fears one that is greater, purer than itself. Now he felt like a schoolboy who has been caught cribbing, and expects the cane.