She turned, with Virginia at her side, and, not looking again at any one in the room, swept away towards the west wing. As her daughter departed, Madam Trevor rose undecidedly, then reseated herself, with a new and firm intention of having more to say in the forthcoming battle than she had had heretofore. Three of the men, Vincent and the rivals, were staring at each other, Whitney and Trevor in mortification, Rockwell merely in surprise.
"Egad!" murmured Vincent, softly, "the little girl was right."
"I apologize to you, Mr. Trevor, and to Mistress Lucy, for my utterly thoughtless and discourteous behavior," cried Whitney. "Indeed, I was thoughtless and unfeeling. I most painfully acknowledge that your sister's anger became the situation."
"Oh—the lady was piqued, sir, at your lack of worldly goods," observed Rockwell, with a grin of ingenuous conceit.
Claude regarded the man with languid disgust. Vincent flushed angrily, and Madam Trevor rose.
"We waste time, gentlemen," she said. "It is perfectly fitting that these matters should form part of the discussion. For my part, Mr. Rockwell, I am entirely with you. I wish my daughter to marry you, since I believe you competent of caring for her as should be. As to the settlements, of course—"
"Pardon me, madam, but this is quite useless," interrupted Vincent, coming forward, with the light of sudden resolve in his eyes. "You are aware that once before this matter has been most unsatisfactorily decided in this way. My sister has continually denied your statement that she was affianced to Mr. Rockwell, and I have been led to believe that it was through her attachment to Mr. Whitney, who some time since honorably professed to me his love for her. As legal head of this house, then, I cannot feel it otherwise than just to insist that my sister herself, and none other, shall choose between these two; and I now say that it shall be entirely without consideration of dower, settlement, or—perquisite. Further, I maintain that, if Lucy choose to reject both of these gentlemen, of her own free will, she shall thereafter be housed and protected under my roof till she find some one to her taste, or till she die here unmarried."
"Well spoken, sir!" cried Whitney, bravely, while Madam Trevor stood aghast, and Claude, intensely interested in the scene, deliberatively crossed the room and sat down with his back to the wall.
"You mean to inform me that my authority is at naught in this household?" inquired Madam Trevor, hoarse with excitement and anger.
"I am thinking only of Lucy's happiness," returned her son, gently. "She must be called to come back."