The major stormed, Mrs. Joscelyn tried tears and entreaties, culminating in hysterics, but Aimée remained unmoved. She calmly repeated her ultimatum, and left them.
Then, in view of the gravity of the situation, another family council was held. Percy came, pale and venomous with the shock of hearing that his worst fears had been realized, and Lydia with a suspicious redness around her eyes. She not only shrank in anticipation from the bitterness of her brother’s taunts and reproaches upon the failure of her effort to attract Kyrle, but there was a sting in the failure itself, for her fancy was of the order that went out to any man who approached her, and her eagerness to detain the young correspondent at her side had not been dictated only by regard for the family interest.
Percy condescended to throw her but one stinging word. “I was a fool to trust to such poor arts as yours,” he said. “Of course, the man was only amusing himself with your vanity and laughing in his sleeve at all of us. You have failed totally in keeping him from Aimée; have you succeeded better in discovering anything about his past relations with Mrs. Meredith?”
She shook her head. “No,” she answered, in a crestfallen tone. “I have never been able to draw anything from him, though I have tried. But I am sure that I am right—that there was something between them in the past!”
“So am I,” he retorted, “but what good is there in being sure when one has no proof? You might have got that out of him if you had done no more! But, even without proof, I have made up my mind to see what can be accomplished by threatening Mrs. Meredith with exposure. Toujours l’audace! She may believe that I know everything. Heavens! if I only did—”
He glared at poor Lydia as if it were her fault that he did not, then turned abruptly to his father. “If I fail in what I am going to try,” he said, “we must adopt a policy of stratagem. Drop all appearance of opposition, but insist upon returning at once to Paris. The first and essential thing is to separate Aimée from the Merediths. Separating her afterward from Kyrle will be comparatively easy.”
“She is—ah—um—very determined,” said the major.
“So is every girl who fancies herself in love; what does that matter? She will learn that her determination must bend before ours. For myself, I will hesitate at no means to accomplish this. Are you not ready to say the same?”