“They will get no harm from eating with Florence,—my word for that,—but good, rather.”
“But I don’t wish my children to eat with dependants and inferiors.” Mrs. Dainty drew up her chest and drew down her chin, and looked all the aristocratic importance she knew how to assume. In the eyes of Uncle John she succeeded in attaining simply the ridiculous. Quick indignation thrilled along every nerve of his body, and cutting rebuke came instantly to his tongue. But prudence whispered a timely caution in his ears, and he only said,—
“This is neither the time nor the place for discussing that question, Madeline. But after tea I will have something to suggest.”
“On what subject?” inquired Mrs. Dainty, showing the existence of a no very amiable mood.
“On that which is of most interest to us all,—the good of these children,” replied Uncle John. “What is best for them is best to do. I think that is a plain proposition.”
Mrs. Dainty was in part disarmed, and so made no answer. But she did not look as if she were in any better frame of mind. The evening meal was concluded in silence.
CHAPTER XXV.
A REVELATION.
Mr. and Mrs. Dainty and Uncle John sat alone in the library, into which they had passed from the tea-table. Uncle John referred to the remark of his niece about the children eating with inferiors. He spoke with unusual sobriety of manner, and in a voice subdued far below its ordinary tone; for Mr. Fleetwood was not only a man of quick feelings, but one who rarely took special trouble in the way of concealment.
“In what respect, Madeline,” he asked, in opening the conversation, “do you think the children will suffer injury by sitting at the same table with Miss Harper? Don’t be annoyed at the question. Don’t let feeling obscure your mind. There is much of vital importance involved in this matter. Let us come to its consideration moved solely by a desire to see what is right. You are the mother of these children, and your interest in them should be higher than your regard for any social usage or for any mere prejudice. You spoke just now of Florence as an inferior and a dependant.”
Uncle John paused.