Page:The Other House (London, William Heinemann, 1896), Volume 1.djvu/196

182 that doesn't matter," said Rose. "The effect of your success will be that you'll unspeakably help and comfort me. It's difficult to talk about it—my grounds are so deep, deep down." She hesitated, casting about her, asking herself how far she might go. Then she decided, growing a little pale with the effort. "I've an idea that has become a passion with me. There's a right I must see done—there's a wrong I must make impossible. There's a loyalty I must cherish—there's a memory I must protect. That's all I can say." She stood there in her vivid meaning like the priestess of a threatened altar. "If that girl becomes your wife—why then I'm at last at rest!"

"You get, by my achievement, what you want—I see. And, please, what do I get?" Paul presently asked.

"You?" The blood rushed back to her face with the shock of this question. "Why, you get Jean Martle!" He turned away without a word, and at the same moment, in the distance, she saw the person whose name she had just uttered descend the great square steps. She hereupon slipped through the circle of chairs and rapidly met her companion, who