"Oh, Alaric! There is a way—one way that would save us." And she trembled as she paused, as if afraid to tell him what the alternative was.
"Is there, mater? What is it?"
"It rests with you, dear."
"Does it? Very good. I'll do it."
"Will you?"
"Honour bright, I will."
"Whatever it is?"
"To save you and Ethel and the roof, 'course I will. Now you've got me all strung up. Let me hear it."
She drew him into a little arbour in the rose-garden out of sight and hearing of the open windows.
"Alaric?" she asked, in a tone that suggested their fate hung on his answer: "Alaric! Do you LIKE her?"