“Oh, how interesting! And they came here to see him?”
“Yes, and to give him a reception in his own house,” said Will Walling, not quite truly.
“Oh, how interesting! And, Mr. Walling, who is that pretty young woman who has just gone up to the clergyman’s party?”
“Some friend of the family. Here comes your brother. He has just left the group. And before he comes, my dear Mrs. Hay, I must tell you that there are others, or rather, there is one other person in this house in whom you are more intimately interested than in all the rest,” said Will Walling very gravely.
Lamia looked a little disturbed.
“Who can that be?” she inquired in a low, faltering voice.
“Can you not surmise? Think what near relatives you have living.”
“I—have no near relatives living—except my brother, and—my father.”
“Your father is here, longing to see his only daughter.”
“My father here? What has he come for?” demanded this Goneril in so sharp a tone of displeasure and annoyance that Will Walling lost all pity for her and spoke near his purpose when he answered: