"Do you mean that I must do it?"
"If it is your pleasure."
"Then I will speak of it immediately."
"You can have an opportunity to-night. But Eleanor,—you must call her, sister Balliol."
"I can't, Rowland!"
Silence fell between the parties. Mr. Rhys's face was impenetrable. Eleanor glanced at it and again glanced at it; got no help. Finally she laid her hand on his shoulder and spoke a little apprehensively.
"Rowland—are you serious?"
"Perfectly." So he was, outwardly.
"Do you think it matters really whether I call her one thing or another? If it were Mrs. Amos, I should not have the least difficulty. I could call her sister Amos. What does it matter?"
"Why can't you use a Christian form of address with her as well as with me?"