"If I were a selfish girl, and only thought of my immediate happiness, I should say `Yes,'" she said with a little tremulous smile, that made her look more desirable than ever in her lover's eyes. "But I could not allow _you_ to run such a terrible risk. Old people are very strange and very touchy when they think they have been slighted. Suppose she cast you off." "I suppose I could work, as thousands have to do," replied Jack, with a touch of his old doggedness. She shook her head. "My poor Jack! It is easy to talk of working, but you have got to find an employer. And you have been brought up to an idle life. What could you turn your hand to?" She paused a moment, and then added as an after-thought: "And besides, my brother would never sanction it." Even to Pomfret's slow revolving mind, the worldly taint in her just peeped forth in those sensible remarks. "If I am prepared to risk my aunt's displeasure, you can surely afford to risk your brother's?" he queried angrily. But Norah disarmed him with one of her sweetest smiles. "Be reasonable, dearest; we must not behave like a pair of silly children. And besides, there is a certain moral obligation on both sides. You owe everything to your aunt. I owe everything to my brother. It would be very base to ignore them." Jack was touched by the nobility of these last sentiments. "You are much better than I am, Norah, much less selfish." She caressed his curly head with her hand. "We must have patience, Jack. You have told me as plainly as your dear, kind heart would allow you to tell me that, for reasons which I don't want you to explain, your aunt would never give her consent to your marriage with me. Well, we must wait." In plain English her meaning was that they must possess their souls in patience till such time as this excellent old lady had departed this life. The suggestion was certainly a coldblooded one, but in his present infatuated mood Jack did not take any notice of that. Norah made a feeble attempt to gloss over the callousness of her remarks by adding that, although it was a very horrible thing to have to wait for the shoes of dead people, a person of Miss Harding's great age must expect to very shortly pay the debt of nature. Two days later, Jack received a telegram which seemed to give a certain air of prophecy to the young woman's forebodings. It was dispatched to him from his aunt's home in Cheshire by the local doctor, who had attended her for years. It informed him that she was seriously ill and requested his immediate attendance.