Even Mr. Kendal was not superior to this view, feeling the
offence with all the sensitiveness of a hot-tempered man, a proud
reserved guardian of the sanctities of home, and of a father who had
seen his daughter's weakest and most faulty action turned into
ridicule, and he seemed to feel himself bound to atone for not going
to all the lengths to which Algernon would have impelled him, by
showing the utmost displeasure within the bounds of common sense.
Albinia, better appreciating the irresistibly ludicrous aspect of the
adventure, argued that the sketch harmlessly shut up in a paper-case
showed no great amount of insolence, and that considering how the
discovery had been made, it ought not to be visited. She thought the
drawing had better be restored without remarks by the same hand that
had abstracted it; but Mr. Kendal sternly declared this was
impossible, and Sophy's countenance seconded him.
'Well, then,' said Albinia, 'put it into my hands. I'm a bad manager
in general, but I can promise that Ulick will come down so shocked
and concerned, that you will not have the heart not to forgive him.'
'The question is not of forgiveness,' said Sophy, in the most rigid
of voices, as she saw yielding in her father's face; if any one had
to forgive, it was poor Lucy and Algernon. All we have to do, is to
be on our guard for the future.'
'Sophy is right,' said Mr. Kendal; 'intimacy must be over with one
who has so little discretion or good taste.
Pages:
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618