“I know—I know. Bless me, child, do you think that I have not thought of that? If you were only wise, which you are not, you would marry Random and remain at the Fort.”
“Sir Frank has other fish to fry, father. And even if I did remain at the Fort as his wife, I still could not look after you.”
“Humph! I am beginning to see what you are driving at. But I can't forget your mother, my dear. She was a good wife to me.”
“Still,” said Lucy coaxingly, and becoming more and more the champion of Mrs. Jasher, “you cannot manage this large house by yourself. I do not like to leave you in the hands of servants when I marry. Mrs. Jasher is very domesticated and—”
“And would make a good housekeeper. No, no, I don't want to give you another mother, child.”
“There is no danger of that, even if I did not marry,” rejoined Lucy stiffly. “A girl can have only one mother.”
“And a man apparently can have two wives,” said Braddock with dry humor. “Humph!”—he pinched his plump chin—“it's not a bad idea. But of course I can't fall in love at my age.”
“I don't think that Mrs. Jasher asks for impossibilities.”
The Professor rose briskly.
“I'll think over it,” said he. “Meanwhile, I am going to London.”