"Has he? Who, then, was taking your daughter to dinner-parties, to theatres—I don't know what?"
Lind dealt gently with this madness.
"Who told you?"
"I have eyes and ears."
"Put them to a better use, Beratinsky."
Then he left, and the hansom carried him along to Curzon Street. Natalie herself flew to the door when she heard the cab drive up: there she was to receive him, smiling a welcome, and so like her mother that he was almost startled. She caught his face in her two hands and kissed him.
"Ah, why did you not let me come to meet you at Liverpool?"
"There were too many with me, Natalie. I was busy. Now get Anneli to open my portmanteau, and you can find out for yourself all the things I have brought for you."
"I do not care for them, papa; I like to have you yourself back."
"I suppose you were rather dull, Natalushka, being all by yourself?"