"Sit down, Leo," she said quietly. "It is time we had an explanation. You are behaving very badly, and I must request you at least to listen to me."
Haverleigh had been doing nothing else for nearly an hour, so this speech was a trifle inconsistent. However, he could not be brutal, so with another shrug he resumed his seat. All the same he was resolved in his own mind that no argument she could use should make him alter the course he had determined upon. Leo could be obstinate on occasions.
"I do everything I can for your good," said Mrs Gabriel in a complaining tone, "yet you thwart me at every turn." Then she proceeded to recount how she had sent him to Eton, to Oxford, how she had permitted him to go to London and allowed him money, and how he had behaved foolishly. It was at this point the young man interrupted her.
"I admit that I have been foolish, but that comes from want of experience. You can't expect me to have an old head on young shoulders."
"Don't interrupt me, please," said Mrs Gabriel, sharply. "Now that you have sown your wild oats, I want you to come here and take your position as my heir. I am no longer so young as I was, and I need someone to help me in administering the estate. Besides, I want you to marry."
Leo rose from his seat. "You wish me to marry," said he; then, after a pause, he proceeded sarcastically, "And I suppose you have chosen me a wife?"
"Just so," said Mrs Gabriel, coolly. "I want you to marry Miss Hale."
"Not if there was not another woman in the world!"
"That's all nonsense, Leo. She has a good dowry and she is an agreeable girl. You _shall_ marry her."
"No matter; she loves you. Her brother told me so, and I am woman enough to see that she is deeply attached to you."
"I won't marry her!" said Leo, doggedly. "I have a right to choose a wife for myself, and Miss Hale is not my choice."
"What have you heard?" he demanded, with a dangerous look in his blue eyes. Mrs Gabriel was going too far.
"That you are in love with Sibyl Tempest."
"That is true. She is a beautiful and charming girl."
"And a beggar!" burst out Mrs Gabriel, savagely. "Her father has nothing beyond his stipend, and that he spends on books. When he dies she will be a beggar. If you married her she would bring you no dowry."