"
"Ah!" said Lord Valleys: "I see. An explanation can be had no doubt
from the gentleman whose sense of proportion was such as to cause him to
suggest such a thing."
"He did not suggest it. I did."
Lord Valleys' eyebrows rose still higher.
"Indeed!" he said.
"Geoffrey!" murmured Lady Valleys, "I thought I was to talk to Babs."
"It would no doubt be wiser."
In Barbara, thus for the first time in her life seriously reprimanded,
there was at work the most peculiar sensation she had ever felt, as
if something were scraping her very skin--a sick, and at the same time
devilish, feeling. At that moment she could have struck her father dead.
But she showed nothing, having lowered the lids of her eyes.
"Anything else?" she said.
Lord Valleys' jaw had become suddenly more prominent.
"As a sequel to your share in Miltoun's business, it is peculiarly
entrancing."
"My dear," broke in Lady Valleys very suddenly, "Babs will tell me. It's
nothing, of course."
Barbara's calm voice said again:
"Anything else?"
The repetition of this phrase in that maddening, cool voice almost broke
down her father's sorely tried control.
"Nothing from you," he said with deadly coldness. "I shall have the
honour of telling this gentleman what I think of him."
At those words Barbara drew herself together, and turned her eyes from
one face to the other.
Pages:
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334