"As you please," replied Miss Carrol, finding it impossible to move the girl, and knowing Mara's obstinate disposition of old, "you will find me in the library when you come down."
"With Basil!" cried out Mara mischievously; and Patricia looked back to give a smiling nod. Then the two entered the bedroom.
Mr. Colpster was lying on the sofa near a large fire, wrapped in his dressing-gown, and looked thin, since his illness had rather pulled him down. He also appeared to be somewhat cross, and shook at Akira several sheets of blue paper with an angry air.
"I received your letter this morning," he said sharply, and without greeting his visitor in any way.
"That is good," said Akira politely, "it will save me the trouble of an explanation, Mr. Colpster."
"I think not," growled the Squire. "I must know more, and in any case I do not intend to consent."
"Oh, father, you must!" cried Mara, indignantly.
"Go down stairs, child," said her father quickly; "I wish to speak alone with this--this gentleman."
But Mara stood her ground. "What the Count has to say concerns me," she declared obstinately. "I shan't go!"
Colpster stormed vainly, while Akira looked on passively. But nothing would move Mara from the position which she had taken up. She simply laughed at her father, and in the end he had to yield a grudging consent to her remaining in the room.