"I am very sorry, Mrs. Titus," said I firmly, "but I fear I must declare myself. I cannot permit you to go into the town to-day."
She was thunderstruck. "Are you in earnest?" she cried, after searching my face rather intently for a moment.
"Unhappily, yes. Will you let me explain—"
"The idea!" she exclaimed as she drew herself to her full height and withered me with a look of surpassing scorn. "Am I to regard myself as a prisoner, Mr. Smart?"
"Oh, I beg of you, Mrs. Titus—" I began miserably.
"Please answer my question."
Her tone cut me like the lash of a whip. My choler rose.
"I do not choose to regard myself as a jailer. My only object in opposing this—"
"I have never known anything so absurd." Two bright red spots appeared in her cheeks. "Your attitude is most extraordinary. However, I shall go to the city this morning, Mr. Smart. Pray give me the credit of having sense enough to—Ah, Colingraft."
The two sons approached from the breakfast-room, where they had been enjoying a ten o'clock chop. Colingraft, noting his mother's attire, accelerated his speed and was soon beside us.