Honor looked at him hesitatingly. She was hardly prepared for the inevitable trial, then. She would have liked to defer it. But, on second thoughts, she considered that it was best to have it over. Sooner or later, an explanation must be made, so perhaps it would be as well for her that day to pass through all the fires. There on Broadbury, when the gorse is swaled (burnt), the cattle are driven through the flames. They plunge and resist, but a ring of men and dogs encloses them, armed with sharp stakes, and goad them forward, and at last, with desperation, lowing, kicking, leaping, angry and terrified, they plunge through the flames. Honor thought of this familiar scene, and that she was herself being driven on. Sooner or later she must enter the fire, be scorched, and pass through; she would traverse it without further resistance at once. ’I am ready, Larry,’ she said in a low voice. ’My dear, dear Honor, what ails you? You are looking ill, and deadly white! What is it, Honor?’ ’We all have our troubles, Larry. You have a broken arm, and I have a breakage somewhere, but never mind where.’ ’I do mind,’ he said vehemently, ’What is amiss?’ ’You told me, Larry, the night your arm was hurt, that—your pride had sustained a fall and was broken.’ ’So it was.’ ’So also is mine.’ ’But what has hurt you? How is it? Explain to me all, Honor.’ She shook her head. ’It is not my affair only. I have others to consider beside myself, and you must forgive me if my lips are locked.’ He put his left arm round her, to draw her to him, and kiss her. ’I will keep the key of those lips,’ he said, but she twisted herself from his grasp. ’You must not do that, Larry.’ ’Why not? We understand each other. Though we did not speak, that night, our hearts told each other everything.’ ’Larry, do you remember what I said to you when we were together in the paddock?’ ’I remember every word.’ ’I told you that I regarded you—as a brother.’ ’I remember every word but that.’ ’You have been a friend, a dear friend, ever since we were children. You were always thoughtful towards us, my sister and me, when you thought of nothing else. You were always kind, and as Charles was away, of late, I came to think of you as a brother.’ ’But I, Honor, I never have and never will consent to regard you as a sister. I love you more dearly than brother ever loved sister. I never had one of nay own, but I am quite sure I could not think of one in the way I think of you. I love you, Honor, with all my heart, and I respect you and look up to you as the only person who can make me lead a better life than I have led heretofore.’ Honor shook her head and sighed. It was her way to answer by nod or shake rather than by word. ’I have good news to tell you,’ he went on; ’my father is delighted at the prospect, and he is nearly as impatient as I am to have your dear self in Chimsworthy.’