Chapter XXIV

"You've got to make him believe that you wish
for the marriage to take place now, for your
own sake, not for his."

It was with those words, uttered by Sir Jacques
Robey, still sounding in her ears, that Rose Otway
walked up to the door of the room where Jervis Blake,
having just seen his father, was now waiting to see
her.

Sir John Blake's brief "He has taken it very well.
He has a far greater sense of discipline than I had at
his age," had been belied, discounted, by the speaker's
own look of suffering and of revolt.

Rose waited outside the door for a few moments.
She was torn with conflicting fears and emotions. A
strange feeling of oppression and shyness had come
over her. It had seemed so easy to say that she would
be married at once, tomorrow, to Jervis. But she
had not known that she would have to ask Jervis's
consent. She had supposed, foolishly, that it would
all be settled for her by Sir Jacques....

At last she turned the handle of the door, and
walked through into the room. And then, to her unutterable
relief, she saw that Jervis looked exactly
as usual, except that his face, instead of being pale,
as it had been the last few days, was rather flushed.

Words which had been spoken to him less than five
minutes ago were also echoing in Jervis's brain, pushing
everything else into the background. He had said,

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v?