"It is not a bicycle, Sir William, it is a camera," said Miss Tarlton, with some asperity. "Oh, well, it is the same thing," Sir William said. "_The same thing?_" Miss Tarlton repeated, with the accent of one who feels an immeasurable mental gulf between herself and her interlocutor. "As to results, I mean," he said. Arrived at this point Miss Tarlton felt she need no longer listen, she simply noted with pitying tolerance the random utterance. "A camera costs very nearly as much to keep as a horse, what with films and bottles of stuff, and all the other accessories. And as for a bicycle, I am quite sure that you have to count as much for mending it as you do for a horse's keep." "The really expensive thing, though, is a motor," said Wentworth. "Lots of men nowadays don't marry because they can't afford to keep a wife as well as a motor." Rendel, who was standing by Rachel's side at the tea-table, caught this sentence. He looked up at her with a smile. She blushed. "I have no intention of keeping a motor," he said. Rachel said nothing. "Are you very angry with me?" Rendel said. "I am not sure," she answered. "I think I am." "You mustn't be--after saving my life, too, this morning, in the boat." "Saving your life?" said Rachel, surprised. "Yes," Rendel said. "By not steering me into any of the things we met on the Thames." "Oh!" said Rachel, smiling, "I am afraid even that was more your doing than mine, as you kept calling out to me which string to pull." "Perhaps. But the extraordinary thing was that when you were told you did pull it," said Rendel. "Oh, any one can do that," replied Rachel. "I beg your pardon, it is not so simple," Rendel answered, thinking to himself, though he had the good sense at that moment not to formulate it, what an adorable quality it would be in a wife that she should always pull exactly the string she was told to pull. "I've been asking Sir William if I may come and speak to him...." he said in a lower tone. "He said I might." Rachel was silent. "You don't mind, do you?" he said, looking at her anxiously. "I--I--don't know," Rachel said. "I feel as if I were not sure about anything--you have done it all so quickly--I can't realise----" "Yes," he said penitently, "I have done it all very quickly, I know, but I won't hurry you to give me any answer. My chief's going away to-morrow for ten days, and I am afraid I must go too, but may I come as soon as I am back again?" "Yes," said Rachel shyly. "And perhaps by that time," he said, "you will know the answer. Do you think you will?" Rachel looked at him as her hand lay in his. "Yes, by that time I shall know," she said.