“Well?”
Ruth’s voice was quiet, but a faint colour had crept into her face and her eyes were blazing.
“Now perhaps you would care to hear what I think of his principles. How do you feel that he comes out of this business? Does he show to advantage? Isn’t there just a suspicion of underhandedness about his behaviour?”
“No.”
“No? He lets you pay these secret visits——”
Ruth interrupted.
“There was nothing secret about them—to him. Aunt Lora brought me to the studio in the first place, and she kept on bringing me. I don’t suppose it ever occurred to Kirk to wonder who I was and who my father might be. He has been perfectly straight. If you like to say I have been underhanded, I admit it. I have. More so than you imagine. I just wanted him, and I didn’t care for anything except that.”
“It did not strike you that you owed anything to me, for instance?”
“No.”
“I should have thought that, as your father, I had certain claims.”