“But what?”
“I can’t fancy being in the same—same—Gulf Stream with my father and not trying to see him, even if it meant having a small set-to with him when I did see him. No doubt he and I are to have some argument at our next meeting, but I am nearly dead to see him all the same,” and Jane’s black eyes softened to velvet.
“But perhaps your father is different,” said Breck sadly.
“Different in some ways, but all fathers are more or less alike. I reckon your father loves you just as much as mine does me. He just doesn’t know you are grown-up, and you see my father had to let me grow up because my mother died when I was so young. He thinks I’ve got lots more judgment than Jack just because he can’t get in his head Jack is a man. If Jack had been a girl, he’d have realized long ago he was no longer a child. I’m hoping you are going to be friends with your father, Breck. It is a terrible thing to carry a grouch around, especially one against some of your own blood.”
“I know it, honey, but you don’t know what a ragging I got the last time I saw the Governor. Some day, maybe, it will come right and heal up, but the place is still pretty sore.”
“But how about Lorna?”
“Oh she is such a—such a—well, I think I won’t say anything about Lorna. I fancy she is what her environment has made her. She hasn’t had half a chance with everything on God’s green earth hers for the asking. Everybody spoils her and she has such a bunch of silly friends around her flattering her to death that it is hard for the true Lorna to come out. She was a cute kid years ago and I used to be mighty fond of her—she was of me too—but now—but never mind. She has changed—changed a lot.”
“Maybe you changed too,” insisted Jane.
“But she seemed to have so little sympathy for my plans and ideals.”