"Here," he said, "I'm afraid I may seem doubly impertinent, but it's a matter that is closer to me than anything in the world. You know that I'm a lonely old bachelor and that all those sentiments that you accuse me of must find some vent somewhere. I'm fonder of Rachel, I think, than I am of anyone in the world, and it's only that affection and the feeling that, in some ways, I know her better than any of you do that give me courage to speak."
He could see that now she was reaching the limits of her patience.
"Well—what of Rachel?"
"I understand—I know—that you—that all of you intend that she shall marry young Seddon——"
"Well?"
"I know that it is impertinent of me, but, as I have said, I think I know Rachel differently from anyone else in the world. She is strange—curiously ignorant of life in many ways, curiously wise in others. Her simplicity—the things that she takes on trust—there is no end to it. The things, too, that she cannot forgive—she doesn't know how often, later on, she will have to forgive them—
"But the first man who breaks her trust——"
"Thank you for this interesting light on Rachel's character. What does it mean?"
"It means," he said abruptly, "that she mustn't be hurt. Your Grace may turn me out of the house here and now if you will, but Seddon is the wrong man for her to marry——"
"What are his crimes?" Her voice was rising, and her hand tapped impatiently on her dress.