At last she went up to him, holding out again appealing hands.
‘Please don’t tell me any more! It’s all right. I just love you, Uncle Ewen—and—and Nora! I want to help! It makes me happy. Oh, why won’t you let me?’
He wavered.
‘You dear child!’ There was a silence. Then he resumed—as though feeling his way—
‘It occurs to me—that I might consult Sorell. If he thought it right—if we could protect you from loss⸺!’
Connie sprang at him and kissed him in delight.
‘Of course!—that’ll do splendidly! Mr. Sorell will see, at once, it’s the right thing for me, and my happiness. I can’t be turned out—I really can’t! So it’s settled. Yes—it’s settled!—or it will be directly—and nobody need bother any more—need they? But—there’s one condition.’
Ewen Hooper looked at her in silence.
—‘That you—you and Nora—go to Rome this Christmas, this very Christmas, Uncle Ewen! I think I put in enough—and I can give you such a lot of letters!’