She looked up at him before she settled herself-- "Roddy Seddon came this afternoon----" "Yes. I know." Suddenly his heart began to beat. He had known, during all these last weeks, of what the common talk had been. He knew, too, what his conscience had told him, and he knew, too, how perpetually he had silenced that same conscience. "He asked me whether he had my permission to propose to Rachel----" "Yes." "Of course I gave it him. I thought it most suitable in every way." Now was Lord John's moment. He knew, even as it descended upon him, what was the right to do. He must protest--Roddy Seddon was not the right man to marry Rachel, Rachel who was to him more than anyone in the world-- He must protest-- And then with that impulse went the old warning that because his mother seemed to him older and feebler to-night than he had ever known her, therefore if he spoke now, it would involve far more than the immediate dispute. There was a sudden impulse in him to risk discomfort, to risk a scene, to break, perhaps, in the new assertion of his authority, all the old domination, to smash a tradition to pieces. He glanced at his mother. She met his eyes. He knew that she was daring him to speak. After all to-morrow would be a better time--she was tired now--he would speak then. His eyes fell, and after a pause and a word about some indifferent matter, he said good night and went. IV Once, in some early hour of the morning when the candles were burning low, the thought of Rachel came to her. Even as she noticed that her hand shone magnificently with hearts she was conscious that the girl stood opposite to her, there against the green wall, straight and fierce, all black and white, looking at her. Christopher? John?... For a second her brain was clouded. Might she not have attempted some relationship with the girl? Given her some counsel and a little kindness? She must have been lonely there in that great house without a friend. She was going now into a very perilous business. She pushed the weakness from her. Her eyes were again upon the cards. "Hearts," she said. The odd trick this game and it was her rubber. The dying flame rose in the silver sconces and the four old heads bobbed, wildly, fantastically, upon the wall. CHAPTER XII DEFIANCE OF THE TIGER--I I Rachel sat in the train with Aunt Adela and Uncle John: they were on their way to Trunton St. Perth, Lord Massiter's country house. It was a July day softened with cool airs and watered colours; trees and fields were mingled with sky and cloud; through the counties there was the echo of running streams, only against an earth fading into sky and a sky bending and embracing earth, sharp, with hard edges, the walls and towers that man had piled together showed their outlines cut as with a sword. Over all the country in the pale blue of the afternoon sky a great moon was burning and the corn ran in fine abundance to the summit of the hills.