"And my chances of getting on, though it sounds absurd to say so, are rather good," he went on. "Lord Stamfordham will, I know, help me whenever he can; and I mean to go into the House, and then--oh, then it will be all right, really." At this moment the door opened and Sir William came in. "You are the very person we wanted," his wife said. "You want to apologise to me for the conduct of your party, I suppose," said Gore to Rendel, half in jest, half in earnest, as he shook hands. "I'm very sorry, Sir William," said Rendel, "if we've displeased you. Pray don't hold me responsible." "Oh yes," said Lady Gore lightly, to give Rendel time, "one always holds one's political adversary responsible for anything that happens to displease one in the conduct of the universe." "I hope," said Rendel, trying to hide his real anxiety, "that Sir William will try to forgive me for the action of my party, and everything else. Pray feel kindly towards me to-day." Sir William looked at him inquiringly, affecting perhaps a more unsuspecting innocence than he was feeling. Rendel went on, speaking quickly and feeling suddenly unaccountably nervous. "I have come here to tell you--to ask you----" He stopped, then went on abruptly, "This morning, at Maidenhead, I asked your daughter to marry me." "What, already?" said Sir William involuntarily. "That was very prompt. And what did she say?" "She said it was impossible," Rendel answered, encouraged more by Gore's manner and his general reception of the news than by his actual words. "Impossible, did she say?" said Sir William. "And what did you say to that?" "That I should come here this afternoon," Rendel replied. Sir William smiled. "That was prompter still," he said. "It looks as if you knew your own mind at any rate." "I do indeed, if ever a man did," said Rendel confidently. "And I really do believe that it was because she was a good daughter she said it was impossible." "Well, if it was, that's the kind that often makes an uncommonly good wife," Sir William said. "I don't doubt it," Rendel said, with conviction. "And I feel that if only you and Lady Gore----" He stopped, as the door opened gently, and Rachel appeared, in a fresh white summer gown. She stood looking from one to the other, arrested on the threshold by that strange consciousness of being under discussion which is transmitted to one as through a material medium. Then what seemed to her the full horror of being so discussed swept over her. Was it possible that already the beautiful dream that had surrounded her, that wonderful secret that she had hardly yet whispered to herself, was having the light of day let in upon it, was being handled, discussed, as though it were possible that others might share in it too? Rendel read in her face what she was going through. He went forward quickly to meet her.