"I have just come down-stairs."
He picked up the newspaper beside him and passed across the folded page.
"All in readiness for Beach Contest," the head-lines ran. "Last big driver to arrive, Lestrange is in Mercury camp with R. Ffrench, representative of Company."
And there was a blurred picture of a speeding car with driver and mechanician masked to goblinesque non-identity, with the legend underneath: "'Darling' Lestrange, in his Mercury on the Georgia course."
"Next year I shall make him part owner. It was always my poor brother's desire to have the future name still Ffrench and Ffrench. He was not thinking of Richard then; he had hope of—"
Emily lifted her gaze from the picture, recalled to attention by the break.
"Of?" she echoed vaguely.
"Of one who is unworthy thought. Richard has redeemed our family from extinction; that is at rest." He paused for an instant. "My dear child, when you are married and established, I shall be content."
Her breathing quickened, her courage rose to the call of the moment.
"If Dick is here, if he is instead of a substitute," she said, carefully quiet in manner, "would it matter, since I am only a girl, whom I married, Uncle Ethan?"