You play very nicely, I'm told, and I've
no doubt you've read heaps of learned books."
Elderly banter would no longer check her.
"You talk of unity," she said. "You ought to make me understand."
"I never allow my wife to talk politics," he said seriously. "For this
reason. It is impossible for human beings, constituted as they are, both
to fight and to have ideals. If I have preserved mine, as I am thankful
to say that in great measure I have, it is due to the fact that I have
been able to come home to my wife in the evening and to find that she
has spent her day in calling, music, play with the children, domestic
duties--what you will; her illusions have not been destroyed. She gives
me courage to go on. The strain of public life is very great," he added.
This made him appear a battered martyr, parting every day with some of
the finest gold, in the service of mankind.
"I can't think," Rachel exclaimed, "how any one does it!"
"Explain, Miss Vinrace," said Richard. "This is a matter I want to clear
up."
His kindness was genuine, and she determined to take the chance he gave
her, although to talk to a man of such worth and authority made her
heart beat.
"It seems to me like this," she began, doing her best first to recollect
and then to expose her shivering private visions.
"There's an old widow in her room, somewhere, let us suppose in the
suburbs of Leeds.
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