And he who watched, he with the illuminating, incommunicable secret, smiled as he watched, in scorn and pity. Scorn of the slow and ugly movements of the intellect, and pity for a creature so mean as to employ them. In the silence that he kept he had not heard the deep breathing of the woman at his side. Now he was aware of it and her. He was positively relieved when the servant announced Mrs. Levine. There was a look on Sophy's face that Brodrick knew, a look of importance and of competence, a look it always had when Sophy was about to deal with a situation. Gertrude's silent disappearance marked her sense of a situation to be dealt with. Brodrick rose heavily to greet his sister. There was a certain consolation in her presence, since it had relieved him of Gertrude's. Sophy, by way of prelude, inquired about Brodrick and the children and the house, then paused to attack her theme. "When's Jane coming back?" said she. "I don't know," said Brodrick. "She's been away two months." "Seven weeks," said Brodrick. "Isn't it about time she _did_ come back?" "She's the best judge of that," said Brodrick. Sophy's face was extraordinarily clear-eyed and candid as it turned on him. "George Tanqueray's at Chagford." "How do you know?" (He really wondered.) "Miss Ranger let it out to Louis this morning." "Let it out? Why on earth should she keep it in?" "Oh well, I don't suppose _she_ sees anything in it." "No more do I," said Brodrick. "You never saw anything," said Sophy. "I don't say there's anything to see--all the same----" She paused. "Well?" He was all attention and politeness. "All the same I should insist on her coming back." He was silent, as though he were considering it. "Or better still, go down and fetch her." "I shall do nothing of the sort." "Well, if you think it's wise to give her her head to that extent--a woman with Jane's temperament----" "What do you know about her temperament?" Sophy shifted her ground. "I know, and you know the effect he has on her, and the influence; and if you leave her to him--if you leave them to themselves, down there--for weeks like that--you'll have nobody but yourself to thank if----" He cut her short. "I have nobody but myself to thank. She shall please herself about coming back. It she didn't come--I couldn't blame her." Sophy was speechless. Of all the attitudes that any Brodrick could take she had not expected this. "We have made things too hard for her----" he said. "We?" "You and I--all of us. We've not seen what was in her." Sophy repressed her opinion that they very probably would see now. As there was no use arguing with him in his present mood (she could see _that_), she left him. Brodrick heard her motor hooting down Roehampton Lane. She was going to dine at Henry's. Presently all the family would be in possession of the situation, of Jane's conduct and his attitude. And there was Gertrude Collett. He understood now that she suspected.