Colonel Baron did not wish to betray that he had strenuously opposed the plan, and had given in with reluctance to his wife's entreaties.
"I thought the two never had been parted?"
"That has been folly. It is time such fantasies should be broken through. Roy must go to a boarding-school in the autumn; and this will pave the way."
Mrs. Baron lifted a lace handkerchief to her eyes.
"My dear heart—a school five miles off. You will think nothing of it when the time arrives," urged the Colonel, who till then had gone against his own better judgment, keeping the boy at home and allowing him to attend a day-school. He had won his wife's consent to the boarding-school in the autumn only that morning, by yielding to her wish that Roy should go to Paris. The Colonel's graceful wife was something of a spoilt child in her ways; and resolute as he could show himself in other directions, he seldom had the will to oppose her seriously.
"Indeed, I should say so too," struck in Mrs. Bryce. "You don't desire to turn him into a nincompoop; and between you and Molly, my dear Harriette, he hasn't a chance. School will make a man of him. And what's to become of Molly?"
Mrs. Baron was still gently dabbing her eyes with the square of lace, and the Colonel answered—
"My wife's step-mother wishes to have Molly in Bath for a visit. She will travel thither with Polly early next week."
"Too much gadding about. Not the sort of way I was brought up, nor you either. But everything is turned upside-down in these days. And you've persuaded Captain Ivor to go too?"
"He will go with us to Paris."