Ralph is to marry Beatrice Atherton--the girl you saw in his rooms, Christopher." Sir James gave an exclamation and leant forward; and Chris tightened his lips.
"She is a friend of Mr.More's," went on Lady Torridon, apparently unconscious of the sensation she was making, "but that is Ralph's business, I suppose." "Why did Ralph not write to me ?" asked his father, with a touch of sternness.
Lady Torridon answered him by a short pregnant silence, and then went on-- "I suppose he wished me to break it to you.

It will not be for two or three years.

She says she cannot leave Mrs.More for the present." Chris's brain was confused by the news, and yet it all seemed external to him.

As he had ridden up to the house in the evening he had recognised for the first time how he no longer belonged to the place; his two years at Lewes had done their work, and he came to his home now not as a son but as a guest.

He had even begun to perceive the difference after his quarrel with Ralph, for he had not been conscious of the same personal sting at his brother's sins that he would have felt five years ago.