“Bowling him over with those long sentences was what fetched me,” cried Evie.
“Yes, indeed,” chuckled her father; “all that part about ‘mechanical cheerfulness’—oh, fine!”
“I’m very sorry,” said Margaret, collecting herself. “He’s a nice creature really. I cannot think what set him off. It has been most unpleasant for you.”
“Oh, I didn’t mind.” Then he changed his mood. He asked if he might speak as an old friend, and, permission given, said: “Oughtn’t you really to be more careful?”
Margaret laughed, though her thoughts still strayed after Helen. “Do you realize that it’s all your fault?” she said. “You’re responsible.”
“I?”
“This is the young man whom we were to warn against the Porphyrion. We warn him, and—look!”
Mr. Wilcox was annoyed. “I hardly consider that a fair deduction,” he said.
“Obviously unfair,” said Margaret. “I was only thinking how tangled things are. It’s our fault mostly—neither yours nor his.”
“Not his?”