"Carrington! Carrington. I forbid you to mention his name. I have already given you my opinion of that impertinent pig----"
"Frequently," interpolated Dorinda crisply.
"----And I won't allow him to be spoken of. You have just mentioned the reason why I think you should get married straightway."
Dorinda set down the marmalade with surprise. "What can Mr. Carrington have to do with our marriage?" she inquired, staring.
Mallien wriggled. "Rupert's a fool to bring the fellow down here," he burst out furiously. "He's a sponge, and a son of the horse-leech, who will get all the money he can from Rupert."
"I don't see why you should say that," protested the girl. "Mr. Carrington did not give me that impression."
"Well, he gave it to me," grumbled her father, eating sullenly; "and if you allow him to get hold of Rupert--who is a fool, as I said before--your marriage will be indefinitely postponed. I won't have it; I won't have it, I tell you," cried the stout little man, jumping up in a fine rage. "If Rupert's money should be given to anyone, it should be given to me."
"Well, as soon as I am Rupert's wife, you will have five hundred a year," said Dorinda soothingly.
"What's five hundred a year?" said Mallien, contemptuously. "I want the whole four thousand. There's a blue sapphire in Paris I wish to get hold of."
Dorinda shrugged her shoulders calmly, being quite used to her father's explosive nature. "You can't expect Rupert to give you all his income," she observed in measured tones. "He is paying a good price for me, seeing that I go to him without a dowry."