"You refused him, of course, Queenie," he answered, looking at her with the grave sadness that always rested on his features now.
Her eyes fell, and a crimson flush crept slowly over her features, but she answered steadily:
"Au contraire, papa, I have accepted him."
"Queenie!"
"Papa!"
"Why have you acted thus? You do not love him?"
"No, papa, but it will be a fine match for me!" she answered, with a hard little laugh, and a slight ring of sarcasm in her voice.
He looked at her almost angrily.
"Queenie, I have never intended—never contemplated the possibility of a marriage for you—since—since you came back home. I took you back and forgave you, kept your secret, and forced your mother and sisters to receive you and overlook that dreadful blank year whose secret I would not reveal to them. But I cannot—you must not expect it—allow you to deceive an honest man."