doesn’t matter what your father said to me. Do be reasonable ———”
“Dane, go away. I won’t be reasonable. Was he reasonable? I heard what he said to you. He called you a blackguard—you! And that brutal taunt! You damned coward!” She swung round on her startled father like an avenging fury. “You heard what I said. Apologize or I will never speak to you again after this day.”
And Davenport Carr saw a terrible look in the eyes of the child that he had come to shelter and defend, and it was a look that took small account of his eminence as a parent, and a look that made his assumptions as protector seem absurd. But in spite of all his confused anger he was big enough to see that he had said an uncalled-for thing.
“I do apologize for that, Barrington,” he said unsteadily, dropping back into the chair.
“It’s forgotten, sir.” Dane turned to Valerie, his eyes trying to hold hers with a compelling look. “Now, Valerie, please say what you have to say quietly. And you know one thing you ought to say.”
But it was unfortunate that Valerie had arrived primed as she had not been for years for a row.
VII
Bob had told her when she returned to the hotel the previous Sunday night that her father had wired to know when she would be back, and then after a little hesitation he had told her also that his sister had written about the rumours.
“Please don’t think I’m interfering. But I thought you might prefer to know.”
She did prefer to know, and was grateful to Bob and
