“Dear child,” he said, as they stood up together, “I cannot tell you what the pleasure has been of this brief reunion.”
She rested her fingers upon his shoulders and looked up into his face.
“Father,” she begged, softly, “come to me. I can keep you, if you don't mind for a short time being poor. You shall have all my salary except just enough for my clothes, and anything will do for me to wear. I will try so hard to make you comfortable.”
He looked at her with an air of offended dignity.
“My child,” he replied, “you must not talk to me like that. If I did not feel that my duty lay with Elizabeth, I should insist upon your coming to me, and under those conditions it would be I who should provide, not you. But for the moment I cannot leave your elder sister altogether. She needs me.”
Beatrice turned away a little sadly. They all three descended the stairs.
“I shall leave our young friend, Mr. Tavernake, to escort you to your home,” the professor announced. “I myself shall telephone to see if Elizabeth has returned. If she is still away, I shall spend an hour or two, I think, with my friends at the Blue Room Club. Beatrice, this has been a joy to me, a joy soon, I hope, to be repeated.”
He took both her hands. She smiled at him with an attempt at cheerfulness.
“Good-night, father!” she said.
“And to you, sir, also, good-night!” the professor added, taking Tavernake's hand and holding it for a minute in his, while he looked impressively in his face. “I will not say too much, but I will say this: so much as I have seen of you, I like. Good-night!”