"It cannot be," he said, and was quite inexorable.
The truth is, that Mrs. Bowrigg, like a good many educated with a narrow severity, had expanded her views under the city influences in directions that were by no means approved by the good Doctor. Hers was not only a godless household, but given over to the lusts of the eye and the pride of life. It was quite impossible for him to entertain the idea of submitting Adèle to any such worldly associations.
Miss Eliza pleaded the exigencies of the case in vain; and even Adèle, attracted by the novelty of the proposed situation, urged her claim in the cheeriest little manner conceivable.
"Only for the winter, New Papa; please say 'Yes'!"
And the tender hands patted the grave face, as she seated herself with a childish coquetry upon the elbow of his chair.
"Impossible, quite impossible," says the Doctor. "You are too dear to me, Adaly."
"Oh, now, New Papa, you don't mean that,—not positively?"—and the winning fingers tap his cheek again.
But for this time, at least, Adèle is to lose her claim; the Doctor well knows that to suffer such endearments were to yield; so he rises brusquely,—
"I must be just, my child, to the charge your father has imposed upon me. It cannot be."
It will not be counted strange, if a little ill-disguised petulance appeared in the face of Adèle that day and the next.