"If I like him, I don't see why
his own daughter----"
"Oh, need we discuss it?" she broke in, impatiently.
"If I'm an unnatural child, why then I am one, and may it
not be allowed to pass at that?" A stormy kind of smile
played upon her beautifully-cut lips as she added:
"Surely one's filial emotions are things to be taken
for granted--relieved from the necessity of explanation."
Thorpe grinned faintly at the hint of pleasantry, but he
did not relinquish his point. "Well--unless you really
veto the thing--I think I'd like to tell him to come,"
he said, with composed obstinacy. Upon an afterthought he
added: "There's no reason why he shouldn't meet the Duke,
is there?"
"No specific reason," she returned, with calm coolness
of tone and manner. "And certainly I do not see myself
in the part of Madame Veto."
"All right then--I'll send him a wire," said Thorpe.
His victory made him uneasy, yet he saw no way of abandoning
it with decorum.
As the two, standing in a silence full of tacit constraint,
looked aimlessly away from the terrace, they saw at the
same instant a vehicle with a single horse coming rather
briskly up the driveway, some hundreds of yards below.
It was recognizable at once as the local trap from
Punsey station, and as usual it was driven by a boy
from the village.
Pages:
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432