Barron smiled, with a lift of the eyebrows. He knocked off the end of his cigarette, and paused.
"Of course you have seen Meynell?" Stephen repeated.
"No, I haven't."
"I should have thought that was your first duty."
"It was not easy to decide what my duty was," said Barron, with the same emphasis, "not at all easy."
"What do you mean, father? There seems to be something more behind. If there is, considering my feeling for Hester, it seems to me that having told me so much you are bound to tell me all you know. Remember—this story concerns the girl I love!"
Passion and pain spoke in the young man's voice. His father looked at him with an involuntary sympathy.
"I know. I am very sorry for you. But it concerns other people also."
"What is known of the father?" said Stephen abruptly.
"Ah, that is the point!" said Barron, making an abstracted face.