THE NEW HOUSE
the housekeeping?" His voice rose to a wail, "and what the devil am I to do about the move?"
"Of course I'll see you through the move. Really, Herbert———"
"I've been a good brother to you. We've got along very well; we've had a happy little home together all these years, haven't we, and now poor mother's gone———"
His eloquence choked him. He was stabbed by the conviction that she should be saying all this to him. Instead she stood there, mulishly, hanging down her head.
"You're too old to marry," he shouted; "it's—it's ridiculous!"
"Richard doesn't think so."
"You don't seem to realise you're leaving me alone with this great house on my hands, this great barn of a house; me a lonely man, with just that one silly old woman. I suppose Janet 'll go off and get married next! Nobody's too old to marry nowadays, it seems."
"No," she said with placid conviction. "You'll marry, of course."
"Marry—me?"
102
