It arose from and was complicated with many
fantastic, half formed, secret resentments of the past. It made
her laugh a shade hysterical.
"Are you going to see that she is properly brought up and educated,
so that if--anyone important falls in love with her she can make
a good match?"
Hers was quite a hideous little mind, he was telling himself--fearful
in its latter day casting aside of all such small matters as taste
and feeling. People stripped the garments from things in these
days. He laughed inwardly at himself and his unwitting "these
days." Senile severity mouthed just such phrases. Were they not
his own days and the outcome of a past which had considered itself
so much more decorous? Had not boldly questionable attitudes been
held in those other days? How long was it since the Prince Regent
himself had flourished? It was only that these days brought it
all close against one's eyes. But this exquisite creature had a
hideous little mind of her own whatsoever her day.
Later, he confessed to himself that he was unprepared to see her
spring to her feet and stand before him absurdly, fantastically
near being impassioned.
"You think I as too silly to SEE anything," she broke forth. "But
I do see--a long way sometimes. I can't bear it but I do--I do!
I shall have a grown-up daughter. She will be the kind of girl
everyone will look at--and someone--important--may want to marry
her.
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