has never been moved as she is moved today, and it
is you who have moved her."

And then another, sterner voice spoke: _"You_ have
not moved her -- presumptuous fool! Nay, it is the
thought of England, of her country, of all you stand
for today, that has moved her. And the next few
minutes will show the stuff of which you are made --
if you have the discipline, the self-restraint, essential
to the man who has to lead others, or if -- if you only
have the other thing. You are being given now what
you could never have hoped for, a quiet, intimate time
with her alone; you might have had to say good-bye
to her in her mother's presence -- that mother who has
never really liked you, and whom you have never really
liked."

He held open the little wicket gate for her to pass
through. They walked up the stone path to the wide,
hospitable-looking porch which is the only part of
Witanbury Cathedral that has remained much as it
was in pre-Reformation days.

To Jervis Blake, suffused with poignant emotion,
every perception sharpened by mingling triumph and
pain, the "faire Doore" of Witanbury Cathedral had
never seemed so lovely as on this still August morning.
As they stepped through the exquisite outer doorway,
with its deep mouldings, both dog-toothed and foliated,
marking the transition from Norman to Gothic, a
deep, intense joy in their dual solitude suddenly rose
up in his heart like a white flame.

The interior of the porch was little larger than an
ordinary room, but it was wonderfully perfect in the
harmony of its proportions; and even Rose, less perceptive
than her companion, and troubled and dis-

[[115]]

p114 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p115w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p116

v?