There will be triumphal arches in the park, and collections of village people, a lunch for the principal tenants, speeches, and all sorts of boring things.
Then we shall have to dine alone in the state dining-room, with all the servants watching us, and go to the household and tenants' ball in the great hall.

It will all be ghastly, as you can see." He paused a moment, but he did not change the set tone in his voice when he spoke again, nor did he look at her.

He had now come to the hardest part of his task.
"All these people--who are my people," he went on, "think a great deal of these things, and of us--that is--myself, as their landlord, and you as my wife.

We have always been friends, the country folk at Wrayth and my family, and they adored my mother.

They are looking forward to our coming back and opening the house again--and--and--all that--and--" here he paused a second time, it seemed as if his throat were dry, for suddenly the remembrance of his dreams as he looked at Tristram Guiscard's armor, which he had worn at Agincourt, came back to him--his dreams in his old oak-paneled room--of their home-coming to Wrayth; and the mockery of the reality hit him in the face.
Zara clasped her hands, and if he had glanced at her again, he would have seen all the love and anguish which was convulsing her shining in her sad eyes.
He mastered the emotion which had hoarsened his voice, and went on in an even tone: "What I have to ask is that you will do your share--wear some beautiful clothes, and smile, and look as if you cared; and if I feel that it will be necessary to take your hand or even kiss you, do not frown at me, or think I am doing it from choice--I ask you, because I believe you are as proud as I am,--I ask you, please, to play the game." And now he looked up at her, but the terrible emotion she was suffering had made her droop her head.