"But you’ve _great_ abilities, Roger. You’ve been _shamefully_ treated by Lord W.... He’s always tried to snub _me_ ... _I_ don’t know why ... I’ll tell you _what_. I’ll _run_ you. After all, I am a rich woman ... now. You shall get into Parliament ... and be a great Imperialist, as that seems to be going to become the fashion. What ... _what_ ... WHAT a pity you married like that, all in a hurry! And you see it’s done you no good with the Nonconformist conscience and those stuffy old things at the F.O. However, it’s no good crying over spilt milk. _I’ll_ make a career for you!" And she looked at him with shining eyes, betraying her palpable secret.... "This is awfully good of you, Syb," said Roger, not meeting her look. "But do you think it is fair on others? Why not put in your father——? Or one of your brothers?" "_Rubbish_! Dad would make just as great a mess of the Silchester estates—only on a far bigger scale—as he is doing over his three hundred acres at Aldermaston. I think we’ll send him up to care-take at Glen Sporran and make him sell up the Aldermaston place. Helping him with loans is like pouring money into—what do you pour it into when it runs away? A sieve? And the two boys have both got jobs and are none too bright, at that. Besides, it’s no fun working with brothers, and I’m going to throw myself heart and soul into the development of the Estate. It’ll be ... it’ll be ... what’s two and a third from twenty-one? Well, at any rate, more than eighteen years before Clithy comes of age. In that time we’ll have raised the annual value of the property to twice what it is now, and incidentally we’ll have a glorious time, influencing people, don’t you know, getting up a new opposition in Parliament, and making ourselves felt...." "Well, in any case, it’s awfully good of you ... _awfully_ ... somehow I don’t deserve it...." "You don’t, after the way you threw me over. But stick to me now, through thick and thin, and"—she was going to have added impulsively, "Oh, _Roger_, I _do_ love you, I can’t help it," and perhaps have flung herself on to a sofa with a burst of hysterical tears to salve all his scruples, but quickly thought better of this and added rather tamely, "And we’ll make a great success of our partnership. And now we must go and play backgammon or bezique or something with Aunt Christabel, or she will come poking her nose in here to see what we’re up to. How tiresome the old are! It’s only on account of what the Queen would say that I keep her on here. She thinks you’re ’dangerous’ to my peace of mind, Roger. But if I had mother here instead she would be equally boring, and father can’t bear to be separated from her, and the two of them would be _unthinkable_."