He laughed sarcastically as he interpreted the protest very legible in her clear honest eyes, and waited a moment for her to disclaim the flattery. But she was silently smiling up at her mother's face.
"Does my very observant ward approve of my homage to the Roman deities?"
"Are your favourite divinities those before whom Marcellus bent his knee?"
Very steadily her large eyes, blue as the border of a clematis, were turned to meet his, and involuntarily he took his under lip between his glittering teeth.
"My testimony would not be admissible before the bar, at which I have been arraigned. Since you have explored the Holy of Holies, be so kind as to describe what you find."
"You might consider me presumptuous, possibly impertinent."
"At least I may safely promise not to express any such opinion. What is there, think you, that Erle Palma worships?"
"A statue of Ambition that stands in the vestibule of the temple of
Fame."
"Olga told you that."
"Oh no, sir! Have not I lived here a year?"