“I have a great deal at stake.”
“Well, whatever it is,” said the Doctor, “you have lost it!”
“Are you sure of that?” asked Morris; “are you sure your daughter will give me up?”
“I mean, of course, you have lost it as far as I am concerned. As for Catherine’s giving you up—no, I am not sure of it. But as I shall strongly recommend it, as I have a great fund of respect and affection in my daughter’s mind to draw upon, and as she has the sentiment of duty developed in a very high degree, I think it extremely possible.”
Morris Townsend began to smooth his hat again. “I too have a fund of affection to draw upon!” he observed at last.
The Doctor at this point showed his own first symptoms of irritation. “Do you mean to defy me?”
“Call it what you please, sir! I mean not to give your daughter up.”
The Doctor shook his head. “I haven’t the least fear of your pining away your life. You are made to enjoy it.”
Morris gave a laugh. “Your opposition to my marriage is all the more cruel, then! Do you intend to forbid your daughter to see me again?”
“She is past the age at which people are forbidden, and I am not a father in an old-fashioned novel. But I shall strongly urge her to break with you.”