“Not yet; but I will go and find her if you like.”
Mr. Stone looked at his daughter wistfully.
“That will be taking up your time,” he said.
Bianca answered: “My time is of no consequence.”
Mr. Stone stretched his hands out to the fire.
“I will not consent,” he said, evidently to himself, “to be a drag on anyone. If that has come, then I must go!”
Bianca, placing herself beside him on her knees, pressed her hot cheek against his temple.
“But it has not come, Dad.”
“I hope not,” said Mr. Stone. “I wish to end my book first.”
The sudden grim coherence of his last two sayings terrified Bianca more than all his feverish, utterances.