"
"That is always 111, Daddy," said Miriam. "It's the other one is 109."
And then evidently feeling that she had been pert: "Would you like me to
play you 109, Daddy?"
"I should love it, my dear." And he leant back and prepared to listen in
such a thorough way that Eleanor would have no chance of discussing the
Chasters' heresies. But this was interrupted by the consummation of the
coffee, and Mr. Blent, breaking a long silence with "Mate in three, if
I'm not mistaken," leapt to his feet to be of service. Eleanor, with the
rough seriousness of youth, would not leave the Chasters case alone.
"But need you take action against Mr. Chasters?" she asked at once.
"It's a very complicated subject, my dear," he said.
"His arguments?"
"The practical considerations."
"But what are practical considerations in such a case?"
"That's a post-graduate subject, Norah," her father said with a smile
and a sigh.
"But," began Eleanor, gathering fresh forces.
"Daddy is tired," Lady Ella intervened, patting him on the head.
"Oh, terribly!--of that," he said, and so escaped Eleanor for the
evening.
But he knew that before very long he would have to tell his wife of
the changes that hung over their lives; it would be shabby to let the
avalanche fall without giving the longest possible warning; and before
they parted that night he took her hands in his and said: "There is much
I have to tell you, dear.
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