"Never," interrupted Mrs. Grant dramatically, "never. Even as your wife I shall always refuse to meet her."
"You must do as you please about that," Dick answered, and turned and went from the room.
Upstairs he met Mabel just coming out of the nursery and would have passed her without speaking, but that she put out a hand to stop him.
"Dick," she said, "you are awfully angry with me, I know, and I realize that more or less it was my fault. But I wanted and I still want to be friends with her. You know how sometimes, even against one's will, one stiffens up and cannot talk."
"I know you never were any use at dissembling," he answered. "I had hoped you might like her, but you evidently did not do that."
"I do not think I gave myself a chance," Mabel spoke slowly. "I had been arguing against her in my own mind ever since you told me about her. You see I am being truthful, Dick. It was just because one half of me wanted to like her and the other half did not, that the result was so disastrous."
Dick laughed. "Disastrous just about describes it," he admitted. "I am going to marry her, Mabel, though mother does threaten to break her heart."
"I know," Mabel nodded. "I knew from the very first moment I saw your eyes when they looked at her. Perhaps that was what made the unpleasant side of me so frigid. Will you give me her address, Dick, in London? Next week, when I am up there with Tom, I will call and make it up with her. If I go all alone I shall be able to explain things."
"And what about mother's broken heart?" Dick questioned.
Mabel shook her head. "It won't break," she said. "As soon as you are married she will start thinking that she arranged the match and saying what a good one it is."