'I don't think I can be wrong now. I will not believe I can be wrong. Kate would not have referred me to your mother, George, unless she was willing to listen to me; and your mother would not have spoken as she did at dinner, unless she had made up her mind not to refuse her consent. What she said at dinner was more significant than anything she said to me privately. I don't think I can fail now, do you?' 'I think--I am sure--you have no reason for fear in the matter now. I should think it unbecoming in either Kate or my mother to go so far and draw back without very good and strong reason.' He crossed his legs, leaned his elbow on the table, and his head on his hand. 'I feel certain I may count on it now. You cannot believe what a relief it is to me. I would not go through the last week again for all the money in the Bank of England.' 'Nor would I.' 'From the first moment I found out my feelings towards Kate until now I have never had a peaceful hour, never a peaceful minute. By day I had a racking doubt, half fear, half hope. I could not sit still half-an-hour. I could not fix my mind on anything, on anyone. My mind was not always occupied with Kate; but when I strove to compel it to look at anything else, I had a feeling as though something must be happening to her while my mind was away from her. Of course I should not speak so freely to any other man; but you and I are in the same boat, and you will appreciate what my feelings must have been.' Osborne crossed the leg which had been under over the other, but said no word. 'And now, George, coming to the practical, do you know any place about here you think would suit us?' 'Not at the moment. What kind of a place would you like?' 'Well, if I am to settle in the country, I may as well have a little bit of the country to turn in. I'd like a comfortable house with ten or twelve acres of land. I have always had an idea of starting as a tree-grower. You can grow trees on ten or twelve acres. I don't mean growing timber, mind; I mean trees for planting. I have had a notion of the whole thing in my mind for years.' 'It would not be easy to get such a place, but you might pick it up.' 'Of course we couldn't live in very good style; but we could have rashers for breakfast, and bacon and beans for dinner, and watercress and shrimps for tea.' 'I don't know about the shrimps hereabout. You'd often have to send for them. We have not a well-supplied fish-market.' 'Well, say tinned beef. We couldn't afford much for that house and land; say, four thousand, or under. Not much splendour to be got for that; but quiet comfort, I should think.' 'You ought to be able to get a place to suit you for the money.'