“Does he know the state she’s in?”
“I can’t say. With respect, I don’t think it matters. I’d never encourage any girl to marry a man against his will just to preserve her reputation.”
“I’m inclined to agree. Has she any money?”
“Her parents have.”
“She has parents? Then where do you come in?”
Eric laughed with impatient bitterness, jumping up with a wriggle of his shoulder-blades and beginning to fidget with the bibelots on his mantelpiece.
“That’s what I’ve been asking myself for some time,” he jerked out; “and especially while I was bearding the man this afternoon... Father, mother, married sisters, brothers... But I don’t think she can go to her people. She doesn’t get on very well with them at the best of times and, if I diagnose her aright, she’d screw up her courage to commit suicide long before she’d screw up her courage to face them. I met her for a moment in New York, and she’s confided in me for some reason. She’s one of these modern, emancipated girls who want to live by themselves and lead their own lives—”
The doctor interrupted him with an impatient sniff:
“Then she needn’t bother to find a father for her child.”
“My dear Gaisford, you know the worth and weight of all that froth! Modern woman wants to make the best of both sexes; she thinks she can get ‘freedom’ and ‘equality’ without fighting or paying for it. Once present the bill—! As I see it, I’m the only soul that the girl can turn to; and, in that belief, I’ve promised to see her through. I suppose this sort of thing is happening daily; I suppose she can be sent somewhere till the trouble’s over... If necessary—I’ve not thought it out yet—, I’ll take her abroad as my secretary—”