Fanny stared at her mother as if doubting whether she had heard aright.
"I told him that I would write to him in the course of a day or two--nothing more."
"I think it a great pity you did not send him packing at once. I have no patience with such temporising ways."
"But, mamma----" began Fanny, and then stopped at sight of her father's uplifted hand.
"My dear, it was not for me to dismiss the young man after so summary a fashion. It seemed to me due to Fanny that before arriving at any decision in the matter, the whole of the circumstances should be made known to her."
"There I differ from you in toto," said Mrs. Sudlow with accentuated acidity. "You are Fanny's father, and as such it was your bounden duty to give young Winslade clearly to understand that all is at an end between him and her, now and for ever."
"But, mamma, all is not at an end between us. Far from it," said Fanny, with that little air of determination which her mother was learning to know so well.
Mrs. Sudlow turned quickly on her.
"Girl, are you mad?" she demanded with a stamp of her foot. "What way but one can there be of dealing with a man whose father was a forger and a felon, and whose mother for years has been passing under a name not her own? Why, even to shake hands with such a person would make me feel as if there was a gaol taint about me for days to come."
The Vicar coughed uneasily. "Pardon me, my dear, but your sentiments are scarcely such as become the wife of a minister of the Gospel."