“Oh, don’t spoil what you have said by seeing the other side of the question!” cried his brother “You have already put it admirably; leave it as it is.”
“At the same time,” Randal gently persisted, “I have heard no reasons which satisfy me that we have a right to keep Miss Westerfield in ignorance of what has happened.”
This serious view of the question in debate highly diverted Mrs. Presty. “I do not like that man,” she announced, pointing to Randal; “he always amuses me. Look at him now! He doesn’t know which side he is on, himself.”
“He is on my side,” Herbert declared.
“Not he!”
Herbert consulted his brother. “What do you say yourself?”
“I don’t know,” Randal answered.
“There!” cried Mrs. Presty. “What did I tell you?”
Randal tried to set his strange reply in the right light. “I only mean,” he explained, “that I want a little time to think.”
Herbert gave up the dispute and appealed to his wife. “You have still got the American newspaper in your hand,” he said. “What do you mean to do with it?”