The command came, of course, from J. Howard. The chair to which I had once before been banished being still in its corner, I slipped into it.
"I wished to speak to you, Miss—a—Miss—"
He glanced helplessly toward his daughter, who supplied the name.
"Ah yes. I wished to speak to you, Miss Adare, because my son has been acting very foolishly."
I made my tone as meek as I could, scarcely daring to lift my eyes from the floor. "Wouldn't it be well, sir, to talk to him about that?"
Mrs. Billing's lorgnette came down. She glanced toward her son-in-law as though finding the point well taken.
He went on imperturbably. "I've said all I mean to say to him. My present appeal is to you."
"Oh, then this is an—appeal?"
He seemed to hesitate, to reflect. "If you choose to take it so," he admitted, stiffly.
"It surely isn't as I choose to take it, sir; it's as you choose to mean."