Page:Caroline Lockhart--The full of the Moon.djvu/22

 is, that my sister is a little 'queer' without you doing a thing like that."

"And a fine example you are setting me," added the "prep" brother in an injured tone.

"Follow it, then," Nan retorted. "It might make a man of you. You'll never stand on your own pins as long as you can hang on to father."

"Don't wrangle, children," Mr. Galbraith interrupted decisively. "This is no time to discuss the matter and we are late for service as it is."

"You won't disown me, father?" persisted Nan, timidly, as they left the library together.

He hesitated, then his eyes grew kinder as he looked into her upturned face.

"No, I won't disown you, but such an escapade as you suggest would be a very great trial to your mother and me."

Throughout the service, gloom as of a funeral party hung over the pew in the fashionable church of which the Galbraith family were prominent and active members.

Yet, in their hearts, with the single exception of Nan's father, no one really believed