In a secretive, intense way he had passionately desired a son.
"If you had had a son--" she repeated.
"He would have stood for both--the past and the future--at the beginning of a New World," he ended.
He said it with such deliberate meaning that the magnitude of his possible significance caused her to draw a sudden breath.
"Is it going to be a New World ?" she said.
"It cannot be the old one.

I don't take it upon myself to describe the kind of world it will be.

That will depend upon the men and women who build it.

Those who were born during the last few years--those who are about to be born now." Then she knew what he was thinking of.
"Donal's child will be one of them," she said.
"The Head of the House of Coombe--if there is a Head who starts fair--ought to have quite a lot to say--and do.

Howsoever black things look," obstinately fierce, "England is not done for.