“What is it, after all?” she exclaimed, changing her tone. “What is it, I say?”
“Well, if you ask me, Mrs. Witt, it’s an awkward record.”
“An awkward record! Yes, but for a man in love?”
“That’s Gerald’s look-out. He can do as he pleases.”
“What, after you have put me to open shame? And for what? Because I loved my father most, and loved my—the man who loved me—most!” George shook his head.
“If you were in love—in love, I say, with a girl—yes, if you were in love with me, would this thing stop you?” And she stood before him proudly and scornfully.
George looked at her. “I don’t think it would,” he said.
“Then,” she asked, advancing a step, and stretching out her clasped hands, “why ask more for another than for yourself?”
“Gerald will be the head of the family, to begin with——”
“The family?”