"All we'll have to do for the rest of our lives, little Alix, will be to get away with our thousand dollars a month. I guess we can do that--what? We sha'n't even have to save, because in the natural course of events--" He left this reference to his father's demise to go on with his hymn of self-congratulation. "But we've pulled it off, haven't we? We've done the trick. Lord! what a relief it is! What do you think I've been living on for the last six weeks? Chocolate and crackers for the most part. Lost thirty pounds in two months. But it's all right now, little Alix. I've got you and I mean to keep you." He asked, suddenly: "How did you come to know the madam so well? I'd never had a hint of it. You do keep some things awful close!" I made my answer as truthful as I could. "This was nothing I could tell you, Hugh. Mrs. Brokenshire was sorry for me ever since last year in Newport. She never dared to say anything about it, because she was afraid of your father and the rest of you; but she did pity me--" "Well, I'll be blowed! I didn't suppose she had it in her. She's always seemed to me like a woman walking in her sleep--" "She's waking up now. She's beginning to understand that perhaps she hasn't taken the right attitude toward your father; and I think she'd like to begin. It was to work that problem out that she decided to come away with me and live simply for a while. . . . She wanted to escape from every one, and I was the nearest to no one she could find to take with her; and so-- If your sisters or your brother ask you any questions I wish you would tell them that." We discussed this theme in its various aspects while the afternoon light turned the pine trunks round us into columns of red-gold, and a soft wind soothed us with balsamic smells. Birds flitted and fluted overhead, and now and then a squirrel darted up to challenge us with the peak of its inquisitive sharp little nose. I chose what I thought a favorable moment to bring before Hugh the matter that had been so summarily shelved by his father. I wanted so much to be married among my own people and from what I could call my own home. His child-like, wide-apart, small blue eyes regarded me with growing astonishment as I made my point clear. "For Heaven's sake, my sweet little Alix, what do you want that for? Why, we can be married in Newport!" His emphasis on the word Newport was as if he had said Heaven. "Yes; but you see, Hugh, darling, Newport means nothing to me--" "It will jolly well have to if--" "And my home means such a lot. If you were marrying Lady Cissie Boscobel you'd certainly go to Goldborough for the occasion." "Ah, but that would be different!" "Different in what way?" He colored, and grew confused. "Well, don't you see?" "No; I'm afraid I don't."