If he had been eavesdropping he would not have heard much, anyway, of an
informing nature. He would have heard two voices, tenderly low and
incoherent, interrupting eagerly, breaking in on each other to explain and
protest and plead. If Stewart's protracted neglect of the interests of a
father would have availed to rouse resentment, Lana's reply to Stewart's
rueful declaration more surely would have exasperated the Senator; she
emphatically commanded Stewart to say not one word on the subject to her
father.
"Why, Stewart Morrison, for twenty-four hours you have been taking away my
breath by doing the unexpected! You have been grand. Now are you going to
spoil everything by dropping right back into the conventional, every-day
way of doing things? You shall not! You shall not spoil my new worship of
a hero!"
"Well, I won't seem much like a hero if I act as though I'm afraid of your
father!"
She raised her voice in amazed query. "For mercy's sake, haven't you been
proving that you're not afraid of him?" Once more, jubilantly, teasingly,
wrought upon by the revived spirit of the intimacy of the old days, she
assumed a playful pose with him, but this time her sincerity of soul was
behind the situation.
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