“But it is impossible, dear Giles,” said Alix. It was the same word she always found.
He turned to her from the window. “Do you mean because of Toppie? My mother? Toppie will be leaving us. My mother’s first thought was that we must keep you always.”
“She wishes to keep me in order to keep me from Maman.”
“She doesn’t know your mother. I’ll make her understand. She wants to keep you because she’s so fond of you.”
“But that’s not enough now, Giles,” said Alix, looking across at him. “You must see yourself that that cannot now be enough. Anyone who loves me now must take in Maman too. It is Maman I must think of. And my place is beside her. You will see it, too, dear Giles, when you have had time to think. I must go to-morrow, and you must help me. Will you, Giles, for I have no money?”
He saw that he must yield. Such resolution could not be opposed. And after all wasn’t it best to let her go? He would have struggled against her longer had it not come to him that nothing would move further the cause he had at heart, Jerry’s cause, and Alix’s, than her withdrawal. Better, much better, were Lady Mary to see that Alix was removed; better for Jerry that he should find something to endure and wait for and win with difficulty.
And, more than all the rest, he was sustained by that sense of secure radiance that had come to him from Alix herself. Wherever she was, whatever befell her, Alix would be safe. He could not have given way, he could not have consented to see her go, if he had not felt sure of it. So it ended as she had meant it to end.
“Of course I’ll help you, dear,” he said.
CHAPTER III
He saw Alix off next day. Her departure cast consternation through the Bradley household. An unfortunate love affair, the fact that Alix did not wish to marry Jerry Hamble, could not be made to bear the weight of such a sudden mystery.