“No,” she said, starting to her feet. Her tears had stopped now, and her eyes were blazing. “No! I am not afraid of you! I’m sorry I broke down. I was foolishly nervous. But I’m over it now. I came in here, Sir Otho Markleham, to ask you to make peace with your daughter, and to propose to you a pleasant way to do so. But you have been so cross and ugly, so sarcastic and cruel, that I see the utter hopelessness of trying to reconcile you two. I was foolish even to think of it! Lady Kitty is gentle and sweet in many ways, but she has inherited your obstinate, stubborn——”
“Pigheaded,” suggested Sir Otho, politely.
“Yes! Pigheaded disposition, and though, as the older, you ought to make the advance, you’ll never do it—and she never will—and—so——”
Patty broke down again, this time from sheer sadness of heart at the irrevocable state of things.
Her face buried in her handkerchief, to her great surprise she felt a kindly touch on her shoulder.
“Don’t condemn me too soon, little one; and don’t condemn me unheard. Suppose I tell you that some of my ideas have undergone a change since Miss Yankee Doodle has taken it upon herself to scold me.”
“Oh!” said Patty, rendered almost breathless with amazement at the kind tone and the gentle touch.
“But suppose it’s very hard for an old man like me to uproot some feelings that have grown and strengthened with the passing years.”
“But if they’re bad and unworthy feelings, you want to uproot them!” cried Patty.
“Yes,” said Sir Otho, “I do. And though my irascible and taciturn nature won’t let me admit this to any one else, I’ll confess to you, Miss Yankee Doodle, I do want to pull them up, root and branch.”