She said "Quite," as she gave him her hand, and their eyes met. There was eager inquiry in his glance; there was calm, steadfast earnestness in hers. Then he shook hands with Routh, and left the room.
The moment the door closed behind him; the smile faded away from Routh's face, and the stern look which it always wore when he was preoccupied and thoughtful settled down upon it For a few minutes he was silent; then he said in a low voice: "Harriet, for the first time in your life, I suppose, you very nearly mismanaged a bit of business I intrusted to you."
His wife looked at him with wonder-lifted brows. "I, Stewart? Not intentionally, I need not tell you. But how?"
"I mean this business of George's. Did not you advise him to go down and see his mother?"
"I did. I told him he must get the money from her."
"A mistake, Harry, a mistake!" said Routh, petulantly. "Getting the money means paying us; paying us means breaking with us?"
"Breaking with us?"
"Nothing less. Did you not hear him when the remorseful fit was on him just now? And don't you know that he's wonderfully young, considering all things, and has kept the bloom on his feelings in a very extraordinary manner? Did you not hear him mutter something about 'once free'? I did not like that, Harry."
"Yes, I heard him say those words," replied Harriet. "It was my hearing them that made me go up to him and speak as I did."
"That was quite right, and had its effect. One does not know what he might have done if he had turned rusty just then. And it is essential that there should not be a rupture between us now."