All at once the girl solved the question in her own fashion; she spoke tremulously, yet in haste.
"I--I think that if Mr. Spencer won't go, then--then it is better that I should."
And she did go, towards the door, and through it like a flash, before the person principally concerned had a chance to stop her.
"Nora!" he cried, the instant she had gone, and he went rushing towards the door through which she had vanished; but again his mother, showing an agility which, in a person of her years, was remarkable, stood in his way.
"Robert, I insist upon your conducting yourself like a gentleman! If you will not show me the respect which is due to your mother, you at least shall not behave in a stranger's house in a way which is unbecoming to my son."
He looked at the old woman, who had planted herself in front of him, upright and stiff as a post, and he drew back; this time his smile was grave.
"Mother, I trust that you are not forgetting that there is a respect which a mother owes to her son. Why do you object to my having any conversation with my affianced wife?"
"Don't you know that her father is dead?"
"Certainly I know it; just dead, and just buried; it is on that account that I feel so strongly that my place is with her."
"Don't talk nonsense!"