_They tell me_... Does not that phrase always put you on your guard, as it were? Of _course_ he was quoting Culroyd, who is still young enough to imagine that whatever he does must be right and that every one must do as he does. Ever since Will was appointed to the staff ... I should have thought it stood to reason; you keep the _brains_ of the army to direct the war, and the _other_ people... I won't put it even as strongly as that, but there _must_ be a division of labour. My Lord Culroyd seems to think that any one who has _not_ run away from school and enlisted... Sometimes I have been hard put to it to keep the peace when they have been on leave at the same time. But I could not allow Brackenbury to make himself a ruler and a judge... "Is it not enough," I said, "that you have refused the last request I may ever make? Is it necessary to add slander to ungraciousness?" "Oh, keep cool, Ann, keep cool," said Brackenbury with his usual elegance. "From all accounts you ain't going to die yet awhile; and, if you do, Master Will won't be any worse off in pocket. He can earn his living as well as another. I'll promise you this, though; if he gets smashed up in the war, I'll see that he don't starve, but that's the limit of my responsibility. Now, does _that_ set your mind at rest?" I refused to continue the discussion and sank back on my pillows. "What," I said, "what have I done to deserve this?"... And it was I who found Ruth for him... Do you know, after that, it was on the tip of my tongue to say I could not see Spenworth? He had made such a pother about coming up from Cheniston... If _your_ brother-in-law were faced with an operation and begged to have what would perhaps be his last word with you ... and if, through no fault of yours, there had been unhappy differences in the past... The nurse came in to say that he had arrived, and I felt that I must make an effort, whatever it cost me. He was worse than Brackenbury! What they said to each other outside I do not profess to know; but Spenworth came in, bawling in that hunting-field voice of his... Ah, of course, you do not know him! I assure you, it goes through and through one's head... I begged him to spare me; and, when I had quieted him, I referred very briefly to our estrangement, which, I told him, was occasioned solely by my efforts to do what in me lay to promote peace in the family. Poor Kathleen ... betrayed and neglected; the licentiousness of life at Cheniston--eating, drinking, smoking, gambling, racing; those four _unhappy_ girls... A _pagan_ household...