"Will you have the goodness to let me pass?" said Sir John.
"I will in a moment or two. You shall go and dine at your club after you have heard why I sent for you."
"Why you sent for me?" exclaimed Sir John.
"Oh, yes; it was all my doing."
"But the message certainly came in your mother's name."
"Yes, because you would not have come otherwise. It was I, Antonia, who really sent for you. You have come up to town in this violent hurry on my account. Now, will you come down to eat a very nice little dinner which has been prepared, and which the cook is waiting to send upstairs, and let me talk to you while you are enjoying it? Or will you listen to me here, and then go afterwards to your club? You must do one or other, unless you are rude enough to take me by main force and move me away from the door."
Sir John Thornton might be very angry, but he was the pink of propriety, and the idea of lifting the bony Antonia from the neighbourhood of the door was too repellent even to be thought of for a moment.
"You have got me into a trap," he said, "and I am deeply offended. Your mother must explain the position of affairs to me when she chooses to return home. I suppose I must listen to you, whether I wish it or not. I only beg of you to be brief."
"Now you are delightful," said Antonia. "Won't you sit down?"