“That’s about what it amounts to.”
“Yes, I suppose it is,” he agreed with a sigh. “And so there is—something the matter.”
“What?” asked Inez, with her accustomed directness. Before he could answer the butler appeared, saying that Mr. Hessel would like to see Miss Fratten if she was not engaged.
“Plagues of his Israel!” muttered Ryland angrily. “Who wouldn’t be a Pharaoh?—only I’d have done the job thoroughly.”
Inez glared at him and told Golpin to show Mr. Hessel in. Fortunately for Ryland there was no time for her to tell him what she evidently thought of him before Hessel appeared in the doorway. With a sulky scowl on his face, Ryland muttered some sort of greeting and was about to edge his way out of the room when Hessel stopped him.
“Don’t go, Ryland,” he said. “I’d like you to hear what I’ve got to say, as well as Inez.”
With none too good a grace Ryland complied. Inez, with unerring instinct, went straight to the point.
“Is anything the matter with father?”
Hessel nodded.
“It’s about that—no, no, my dear, there’s nothing immediately serious,” he interposed hurriedly, seeing the look of almost terrified anxiety on the girl’s face. “He’s quite all right. But something serious will happen if you don’t both help me. How much has he told you about himself?”