“You—and serious! But really you look quite solemn. Has anything happened?”
Gwendoline made several attempts to speak, and then paused again; she was seeking for the right words and could not find them.
“Courage, Gwen! Have you some wish?”
“More than that, papa;—it is a resolution.”
“Oho! that sounds really serious. Perhaps you want to marry one of my Rose-Knights. We should have to think that over very gravely.”
“You are making sport of me, papa. I believe you consider me a very stupid girl, and, indeed, I know I am. Up till now I have not taken any interest in all the great things which you are working for. But in these last few days my eyes have been opened.”
“Have you been listening to all the things that my great guests have said, and did you understand them?”
“No, not all. I believed, as you yourself seem to believe, that those things are too high for me; that I could not understand them; that they had nothing to do with me. Only when the personal appeal was made to me, did I prick up my ears.”
Mr. Toker raised his head in astonishment. “An appeal made to you personally? How so? by whom?”
“By Franka Garlett: ‘Ye young maidens, listen to me!’ she said. I listened to her and....”