"Not to the full," Avery answered, her voice very low. "Then I was too young. Mine was just a child's rapture and it was simply extinguished when I came to know the kind of burden I had to bear. It all faded so quickly, and the reality was so terribly grim. Now--now I look on the world with experienced eyes. I am too old." "You think experience destroys romance?" said Tudor. She looked at him. "Don't you?" "No," he said. "If it did, I do not think you would be afraid to marry me. Don't think I am trying to persuade you! I am not. But are you sure that in refusing me you are not sacrificing substance to shadow?" "I don't quite understand you," she said. He shrugged his shoulders slightly. "I can't be more explicit. No doubt you will follow your own instincts. But allow me to say that I don't think you are the sort of woman to go through life unmated; and though I may not be romantic, I am sound. I think I could give you a certain measure of happiness. But the choice is yours. I can only bow to your decision." There was a certain dignity in his speech that gave it weight. Avery listened in silence, and into silence the words passed. Several seconds slipped away, then without effort Tudor came back to everyday things. "Sit down, won't you? Your tea is getting cold." Avery sat down, and he handed it to her, and after a moment turned aside to the table. "As a matter of fact," he said, "I have just come back from the Vicarage." "Oh, have you?" Avery looked round quickly. "You went to see Jeanie?" "Yes." Tudor spoke gravely. "I also saw the Vicar. I told him the child must go away. That cough of hers is tearing her to pieces. She ought to go to the South Coast. I told him so." "Oh! What did he say?" Avery spoke with eagerness. She had been longing to suggest that very proposal for some time past. Tudor smiled into his cup. "He said it was a total impossibility. That was the starting-point. At the finish it was practically decided that you should take her away next week." "I!" said Avery. "Yes, you. Mrs. Lorimer will manage all right now. The nurse can look after her and the little ones without assistance. And the second girl--Olive isn't it?--can look after the Reverend Stephen. It's all arranged in fact, unless it fails to meet with your approval, in which case of course the whole business must be reconsidered." "But of course I approve," Avery said. "I would do anything that lay in my power. But I don't quite like the idea of leaving Mrs. Lorimer." "She will be all right," Tudor asserted again. "She wouldn't be happy away from her precious husband, and she would sooner have you looking after Jeanie than anyone. She told me so." "She always thinks of others first," said Avery. "So does someone else I know," rejoined Tudor. "It's just a habit some women have,--not always a good habit from some points of view. We may regard it as settled then, may we? You really have no objections to raise?"