"Because I couldn't do what you wanted."
"And you did even worse," continued Lady Helen, "for I have discovered everything. You had the audacity, the impropriety—you, a young girl—to go to Lord Hawtrey's, and to try to interview him. Oh, yes; I have heard that story, and I know what it means; and a nice meaning it has for you, miss—a very nice meaning, indeed!"
"You broke my heart and went away to the country and took father with you," I said. "I could think of no one else. I went to him because I knew he was a gentleman, and would act as such."
"Suppose we come to the matter in hand," interrupted Vernon, who was getting impatient at all this dallying.
"Yes, that's right, Vernon; that's right. Keep her to the point," exclaimed Aunt Penelope.
I looked back at them both. Aunt Penelope's bright eyes were like little pin points in her head; they were fixed on Lady Helen's got-up face. She had really never before, in the whole course of her life, met such a woman. She was studying her from every point of view.
"I have come here, stepmother," I said, "to tell you that I—I—know all the story with regard to my—my darling father. Vernon has told me, and Vernon and I have made up our minds to marry, and father has given his consent, and we mean to be married, if all comes right, in about——"
"Best say a week, Heather," interrupted Vernon.
"In about a fortnight from now," I continued.
"Well, if you must put it off so long," he remarked, leaning back in his chair.