"I do not like secrecy."
"Only for a little while, Ermentrude. My mother is difficult. I would prepare her."
"And Uncle!"
"What of Uncle?"
"He made me take an oath to-day."
"An oath?"
"That I would not leave him while he lived."
"And you could do that?"
"I could do nothing else. He's a sick man, Carleton. The doctors shake their heads when they leave him. He will not live a year."
"A year? But that's an eternity! Can you wait, can I wait a year?"