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"Black eyes or blue," said Marty, with a horizontal gesture of his hands, "her brother wants to see her married." "Well, I don't," replied Mrs. Wayne, "at least not to this boy. I will never give my consent to putting a child of her age in the power of a degenerate little drunkard like that." Mrs. Farron listened with all her ears.
Mathilde shook her head. "He lives alone with his mother. His father is dead. She's very good and interested in drunkards." "In drunkards?" Mrs. Farron just shut her eyes a second. "She has a mission that reforms them." "Is that his profession, too?" "Oh, no. He's in Wall Street quite a good firm. O Mama, don't sigh like that! We know we can't be married at once. We are reasonable.
"Is this a conference?" asked Farron. Mrs. Wayne made it so by her reply. "The whole question is, Are they really in love? At least, that's my view." "In love!" Adelaide twisted her shoulders. "What can they know of it for another ten years? You must have some character, some knowledge to fall in love. And these babes " "No," said Mr. Lanley, stoutly; "you're all wrong, Adelaide.
Farron," she said aloud, and for her this was the depth of dissimulation. "Well, then," said Adelaide, "you and I are in about the same position, aren't we? We are both willing that our children should marry, and we have no objection to offer to their choice except our own ignorance. We both want time to judge. But how can we get time, Mrs. Wayne?
"O Mama," she said, "I'm so sorry you're worried! I'm sorry I'm one of your worries; but don't you see I love Pete just as you do Mr. Farron?" "God help you, then!" said Adelaide, quickly, and went to her room to put on with a haste none the less meticulous her small velvet hat, her veil, her spotless, pale gloves, her muff, and warm coat. She drove to Vincent's office.
He thought of Mathilde's youth and his own untried capacities for success, of poverty and children, of the probable opposition of Mathilde's family and of a strange, sinister, disintegrating power he felt or suspected in Mrs. Farron. He felt that it was a terrible risk to ask a young girl to take and that it was almost an insult to be afraid to ask her to take it.
He laughed at her, and she added: "I don't mean they are not fond of each other, but Mr. Farron must be forty-five. What I mean by love " she hesitated. "Don't stop." But she did stop, for her quick ears told her that some one was coming, and, Pringle opening the door, Mrs. Farron came in. She was a very beautiful person.
Saftleigh had gone out West only six years ago, and had made all his money since, in land and railroad business. Mrs. Saftleigh said that 'whatever Farron touched was sure to double. She meant money; but I thought of our perplexities when she said it, and he certainly has managed to double them.
"You mean you have never seen before?" "Not so clearly." Mrs. Farron bit her lips. To have missed understanding this seemed a sufficient proof of immaturity. She rose. "Well, my darling," she said in a tone of extreme reasonableness, "we shall decide nothing to-night. I know nothing against Mr. Wayne. He may be just the right person. We must see more of him. Do you know anything about his family?"
She bent her head a trifle on one side in the way a puppy will when an unusual strain is being put upon its faculties. It seemed to her curious, but she saw she was being advised to drop the subject. Suddenly Adelaide sprang to her feet and said she was going to bed. "I hope your headache will be better, Mama," Mathilde hazarded; but Adelaide went without answering. Mathilde looked at Mr. Farron.
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