"I do. I meddle with your personal affairs no longer. If I did I should begin at once—" I paused, for an attack on Marcia Van Wyck was trembling at the top of my tongue. "But there—you see we should only quarrel. I don't like your friends. We couldn't agree—"
"You like Una."
"Yes, unqualifiedly. She is one in a million."
"Well, we're agreed on that at least," he said smiling.
There was another silence in which Jerry puffed on his unlighted pipe.
"You know I've invited Una and her mother up here this week and what's better still, they're coming."
This was excellent news. To me it meant that Una thought the boy worth saving from himself and now proposed to carry the war into the enemy's country.
"I'm delighted," I said briefly.
"So am I," he returned thoughtfully. He scraped his pipe, filled it slowly and when it was lighted again, settled down comfortably.
"I think Una has wakened me, Roger. The force of her example is tremendous, her life, her way of thinking of things, her cheerfulness, hopefulness about everybody. I can't make out why Marcia should attack her so unjustly. It wasn't fair."