As one convicted of a crime Marcus returned to the dining-room. When Pillar came into the room he looked at Mr. Maitland as he had never looked at him before—looked as if he were saying: “A little sunshine comes into the house and you shut it out—you draw down the blinds!”
It fell to the lot of Mrs. Oven to take Miss Shan’t back to her aunt. She called her Miss Charlotte, thinking Shan’t was but the correct way of pronouncing Charlotte. She had lived with a Lady Harriet who had been very particular to pronounce her name curiously, and Mrs. Oven recognized a distinction attached to curiously pronounced names and respected those who knew how to pronounce them.
“You see, Diana,” explained her uncle, “I am delighted to have you, but two extra in the house do make a difference, especially when the second one is a child. There are the servants to consider, and besides there is your aunt—”
Diana said Aunt Elsie would never let him have Shan’t, so he needn’t worry.
“My dear Diana, your aunt has not the power to prevent me from having Shan’t if I wish to—”
“You will wish to. The day will come when you will find you can’t live without her. I can’t imagine what I shall do without her, but I quite see you can’t have two of us—it’s too darling of you to have me, and Aunt Elsie must be considered.”
“With your Aunt Elsie I have nothing whatever to do. I owe her no consideration. I don’t know her—”
“All right, darling, don’t be flurried. She doesn’t want to know you. She dislikes you quite amazingly.”
“Why should she?” asked Marcus, finding the unreasonableness of women difficult to understand.
That evening Mr. Maitland offered Pillar Zoo tickets for Sunday.