“It is stuffy and close in here. I did hope that we should have been down at the old house by this time.”
“Yes, that holiday got knocked on the head. Has Lady Gowan heard from your father again?”
“Hush!”
“Oh, very well; I’ll whisper. But there are no spies here.”
“Mother hasn’t heard now for some time, and she’s growing very uneasy. She has been getting worse and worse. Oh, what a miserable business it is! I wish we were with him.”
“Yes, I wish we were; for if matters go on like this much longer, I shall run away. Here, what do you say, Frank? I’m sick of being a palace poodle. Let’s go and seek adventures while we’re searching for your father.”
“Seek nonsense!” said Frank testily. “Life isn’t like what we read in books.”
“Oh yes, it is—a deal more than you think. Let’s go; it would be glorious.”
“Nonsense! Even if I wanted to, how could I? You know what my father said—that I was to stay and protect my mother.”
“She’d be safe enough where she is, and she’d glory in her son being so brave as to go in search of his father.”