Page:Gissing - The Emancipated, vol. I, 1890.djvu/102

94 rose impatiently from her chair, speaking with peremptory accent.

"Please do as I request you! Cone and sit clown."

Marsh obeyed, and more than obeyed. He kicked a stool close to her, dropped upon it with one leg curled underneath him, and leaned his head against her shoulder. Madeline remained passive, her features still showing the resentment his manner had provoked.

"I've come all this way just to see you, Mad, when I've no right to he here at all."

"Why no right?"

"I told you to prepare yourself for bad news."

"That's a very annoying habit of yours. I hate to be kept in suspense in that way. Why can't you always say at once what you mean Father does the same thins constantly in his Letters. I'm sure we've quite enough anxiety from him; I don't see why you should increase it."