“Exactly,” murmured the Colonel, deeply disturbed at the prospect before him.
“As for Paul——”
“Yes, Paul! You can’t think——”
“Please don’t catch me up that way, Edgar. As I was saying, Paul must just make his choice. He is quite old enough to understand—make his choice between his father and—and the rest of us.”
“You can’t mean, Augusta, that the boy——”
“Allow me to finish. You do interrupt so.”
“Beg pardon, I’m sure.”
“I am quite prepared to receive Paul as one of our family. He is a very nice boy and will easily fit in. But there must be no coming and going——”
“But, great Heaven! Augusta, you can’t mean that the boy must repudiate his father——”
“Or us. I exactly do.” His wife’s voice carried the inexorable calm of fate.