Page:Arminell, a social romance (1896).djvu/271

Rh Arminell. "You are annoyed at my coming out at night with Mr. Saltren—with Giles senior."

"Arminell!"

"I am sorry to have caused you annoyance, but, papa, in the first place I was desirous of seeing the meeting, and hearing what was said at it, and of judging for myself."

"Of hearing your own father abused, insulted and denounced."

"Not exactly that, papa; but surely there is wrong on both sides."

"And you constituted yourself judge over your father!"

"No, papa, I wished to hear what was said, and I asked—you know whom I mean—to come with me. It may possibly have been indiscreet."

"Not merely indiscreet, but wrong, for it was an act of deliberate, wilful disobedience to the wishes of your father, plainly expressed."

"I do not wish to vex and disobey you, papa, but I will exercise my independence and judgment. I cannot allow myself to be cooped in the cage of proprieties. I must see what is going on, and form my own opinions."

"Very well—you shall go to your Aunt Hermione. Your step-mother is not good enough for you. I—your father—am not good enough for you. We are all too strait-laced, too tied hand and foot by the laces of respectability, to serve as guide or check on such a headstrong piece of goods as yourself. You go to Hermione next week."

"I do not wish to go to her. I dislike her. I detest the sort of life led in her house, a life utterly hollow, frivolous and insincere."

"She is a woman of the world."

"A woman of the world that is passing away. I am standing with one foot on a world that is coming on, and I will not step back on to the other."