“I must see him,” said Mathilde.
Lanley looked at Wayne.
“This is an opportunity for you to rehabilitate yourself. You ought to be man enough to promise you won’t see her until you are in a position to ask her to be your wife.”
“I have asked her that already, you know,” returned Wayne with an attempt at a smile.
“Pete, you wouldn’t desert me?” said Mathilde.
“If Mr. Wayne had any pride, my dear, he would not wish to come to a house where he was unwelcome,” said her mother.
“I’m afraid I haven’t any of that sort of pride at all, Mrs. Farron.”
Adelaide made a little gesture, as much as to say, with her traditions, she really did not know how to deal with people who hadn’t.
“Mathilde,”—Wayne spoke very gently,—“don’t you think you could stop crying?”
“I’m trying all the time, Pete. You won’t go away, no matter what they say?”