“Not a bit.”
“Why?”
“Now, Miss von Essen—I’m just the pleasant young man who is allowed to run around with you. I don’t know why I’m allowed, but I’m delighted that it’s so. I’m sure if your father trusted you to me you wouldn’t do anything to get me in bad with him.”
He moved his chair closer and leaned forward. “You haven’t seemed happy with your father?”
“I’m not,” she said, sharply.
“Why don’t you get away from him, then?”
“Well,” she said, with a wry smile, “there’s the new lock, for one thing.”
“I know something that will unlock it.”
“For instance?”
“Marriage.”