'What's the matter with his antecedents? I didn't know he had any.'
'Don't interrupt. And Miss Yeo? Where was Miss Yeo, I should like to know?'
'A nice way she does her duty as chaperone!'
'Dear, Hyacinth's twenty-three, not a child. Miss Yeo's her companion; but she can't insist, even if she wants to, on following Hyacinth about if she doesn't wish it.'
'She should wish it. Seriously, do you think Sir Charles knows of these goings-on--I mean of this conduct?'
'Then isn't it my duty as a married man and father of a family--'
Edith concealed a smile by moving the screen.
'To communicate with him on the subject?'
Edith had a moment's terror. It struck her that if she opposed him, Bruce was capable of doing it. He often wrote letters beginning, 'Sir, I feel it my duty,' to people on subjects that were no earthly concern of his. If he really did anything of this sort, Hyacinth would never forgive her.
After a second's concentration of mind, she said mildly--
'Perhaps you had better, if you really feel it your duty. Of course, I'd rather you didn't, personally. But if that's how you feel about it--'
'Indeed! Well, I shall not do anything of the sort. Is it my business to open her guardian's eyes? Why should I? No; I won't interfere in the matter at all. Let them go their own way. Do you hear, Edith? Let them do just whatever they like.'
'Mind you, they'll be wretched,' he added rather vindictively. 'If I only saw a chance of happiness for them I shouldn't mind so much.'
'Why do you think they will be miserable if they are married?'
'Of course they will. People who behave in that unprincipled way before--'
'Why, we used to sit in the garden,' said Edith timidly.
'Oh, yes, of course; after your father had given his consent.'
Bruce smiled rather fatuously. 'Don't compare the two cases. I was a man of the world.... I was very firm, wasn't I Edith? Somehow at first your father didn't seem to like me, but I reasoned with him. I always reason calmly with people. And then he came round. Do you remember how pleased you were that day?' He patted Edith's hair.
'Perhaps I am a little bit too severe,' he acknowledged. 'But you don't quite understand how it jars on me to think of any friend of yours behaving in a manner that's--are you sure they're engaged?'