"Mother!"
"I will, so now you're warned; and she shall know why I do it. I'll not live to be mocked by all my children; I've had nine of them, as you say, and if not one of them will try to please his mother--then God help us mothers."
The young man turned to the Earl.
"Do you associate yourself, sir, with my mother in this matter?"
"Certainly I do--most distinctly I do; with what she says respecting this young woman most emphatically I do; I can't conceive of a rational creature doing anything else. As matters have turned out the girl's impossible--absolutely out of the question. If you can't see it, Robert, you're a fool."
"Thank you, sir." The young man regarded his plain-speaking sire with a wry little smile. "I think it probable that when you have thought things over, sir, you will modify your views; but while you hold them so warmly, plainly it is desirable that I should restrict myself to a bare announcement of the fact that they are not mine."
He moved towards the window; his mother called out to him.
"Robert, where are you going? You will return with us. We came in the landau; there is plenty of room. I beg you will give us your company; indeed, if it is not sufficient for a mother to beg of her son, then I insist upon your doing so."
"Pardon me, mother, but I am not going to Holtye; I have taken a room at the 'Unicorn.'"
"The 'Unicorn!' Robert! Harold, will you be so good as to ask him what he means?"