“Very sad, Maddy. He is, as Luke Vine says, going wrong. Well?”
“I have been thinking, papa, that you might take him into your office and give him a chance of redeeming the past.”
“Nice suggestion, my dear. What would old Crampton say?”
“Mr Crampton could only say that you had done a very kind act for the son of your old friend.”
“Humph! Well?”
“You could easily arrange to take him, papa, and with your firm hand over him it would do an immense deal of good.”
“Not to me.”
There was a pause during which Van Heldre gazed into his child’s unblenching eyes.
“So we are coming at facts,” he said at last. “Harry asked you to interfere on his behalf?”
Madelaine shook her head and smiled.