In order to give greater weight to his action he formally told his daughter before going to bed that he desired to speak to her before she went out the next morning. Hero’s start and blush at the request showed that she guessed its meaning.
The boast which the scientist had made, that he knew every thought in his daughter’s mind, might have been made with more truth by Hero about her father. She had never deluded herself about the view which he would take of such a suitor as Lord Alistair Stuart. Now she spent a restless night revolving in her mind how best to defend the man she loved.
Sir Bernard passed a restless night also. The task of a father whose daughter is motherless is a responsible and delicate one; and though the physician had accustomed himself to speak more plainly to Hero than most fathers speak to their daughters, he would have given a great deal to have had a woman’s aid at this crisis.
Their conversation took place the next morning in the drawing-room of the villa. The scientist missed his study, but the French seaside house is built on the principle of parsimony in living-rooms and extravagance in bedrooms. The villa contained sleeping accommodation for upwards of twenty persons and a dining-room comfortably seating six.
“We have seen a great deal lately of Lord Alistair,” the father began gravely, “and I am afraid I have been to blame in not noticing how much you and he were together. I will not ask you whether you have seen his evident admiration for you, but I hope it is not too late to caution you against any serious inclination for him.”
“Who has been speaking to you about us?” demanded Hero, with a bright spot on her cheeks.
Sir Bernard had not allowed for womanly intuition when he promised to keep the Duke’s interference a secret.
He shook his head gravely as he answered:
“I see no good in discussing that. It is for you to tell me how matters stand.”
“It was the Duke, of course,” Hero returned. “Paragons are always mean. There was a time when I might have accepted him if he had asked me to. But he is like the dog in the manger: he would not ask me himself, and yet he grudges me to his brother.”