"I am sorry you are going," Rowena said frankly; "but you will be glad, I know, for you don't like town."
"I think London is now as frivolous as Paris," said the General gravely. "It is no pleasure to be in it."
"There are many circles," said Rowena thoughtfully. "In every big city there is a certain section who are taking their pleasures madly, but there is a great deal of good going on in a quiet way."
"You see good in every one," said the General with a smile; "even in your giddy old friend with whom you live."
"Now, we won't talk about her. I feel so glad that you are going to have Marion Panton. I am sure she will prove a success. She is devoted to children and wins their love wherever she goes. I have seen letters from some of her old pupils. They were most attached to her."
"Yes, I am grateful to you for the trouble you have taken."
He paused, and Rowena bent forward, a glint of laughter in her bright, soft eyes:
"And don't frighten her too much by giving her your views of a child's training! You sound so very alarming when you talk, and you are so delightfully different when you act! Let yourself go sometimes, and show her that you are human like the rest of us! Am I not impudent in talking like this?"
For a moment the General's eyes held a gleam of corresponding amusement in them, then he stood up, his back to the fire and his whole face full of softened emotion:
"I really came to talk to you about something very important," he said. "Will you give me a hearing?"