Tracy was aghast. The colonel said, in a disappointed voice:
“Well, I’m sorry. Sho, I didn’t know she was going out, Mr. Tracy.” Gwendolen’s face began to take on a sort of apprehensive What-have-I-done expression. “Three old people to one young one—well, it isn’t a good team, that’s a fact.” Gwendolen’s face betrayed a dawning hopefulness and she said—with a tone of reluctance which hadn’t the hall-mark on it—
“If you prefer, I will send word to the Thompsons that I—”
“Oh, is it the Thompsons? That simplifies it—sets everything right. We can fix it without spoiling your arrangements, my child. You’ve got your heart set on—”
“But papa, I’d just as soon go there some other—”
“No—I won’t have it. You are a good hard-working darling child, and your father is not the man to disappoint you when you—”
“But papa, I—”
“Go along, I won’t hear a word. We’ll get along, dear.”
Gwendolen was ready to cry with vexation. But there was nothing to do but start; which she was about to do when her father hit upon an idea which filled him with delight because it so deftly covered all the difficulties of the situation and made things smooth and satisfactory:
“I’ve got it, my love, so that you won’t be robbed of your holiday and at the same time we’ll be pretty satisfactorily fixed for a good time here. You send Belle Thompson here—perfectly beautiful creature, Tracy, perfectly beautiful; I want you to see that girl; why, you’ll just go mad; you’ll go mad inside of a minute; yes, you send her right along, Gwendolen, and tell her—why, she’s gone!” He turned—she was already passing out at the gate. He muttered, “I wonder what’s the matter; I don’t know what her mouth’s doing, but I think her shoulders are swearing. Well,” said Sellers blithely to Tracy, “I shall miss her—parents always miss the children as soon as they’re out of sight, it’s only a natural and wisely ordained partiality—but you’ll be all right, because Miss Belle will supply the youthful element for you and to your entire content; and we old people will do our best, too. We shall have a good enough time. And you’ll have a chance to get better acquainted with Admiral Hawkins. That’s a rare character, Mr. Tracy—one of the rarest and most engaging characters the world has produced. You’ll find him worth studying. I’ve studied him ever since he was a child and have always found him developing. I really consider that one of the main things that have enabled me to master the difficult science of character-reading was the vivid interest I always felt in that boy and the baffling inscrutabilities of his ways and inspirations.”