She believed it would not.

He had made himself outwardly stolid.

But the thing must have been bitter.
To him the whole story of the splendid past was familiar even if through his own life he had looked on only at gradual decay.

There must be stories enough of men and women who had lived in the place, of what they had done, of how they had loved, of what they had counted for in their country's wars and peacemakings, great functions and law-building.

To be able to look back through centuries and know of one's blood that sometimes it had been shed in the doing of great deeds, must be a thing to remember.