Page:The Bostonians (London & New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886).djvu/434

 interested in your sister as they are in Miss Verena; they know to what extent she has backed her: and I should be so delighted (I see the heading, from here, so attractive!) just to take down "What Miss Chancellor's Family Think about It!"'

Mrs. Luna sank into the nearest chair, with a groan, covering her face with her hands. 'Heaven help me, I am glad I am going to Europe!'

'That is another little item—everything counts,' said Matthias Pardon, making a rapid entry in his tablets. 'May I inquire whether you are going to Europe in consequence of your disapproval of your sister's views?'

Mrs. Luna sprang up again, almost snatching the memoranda out of his hand. 'If you have the impertinence to publish a word about me, or to mention my name in print, I will come to your office and make such a scene!'

'Dearest lady, that would be a godsend!' Mr. Pardon cried, enthusiastically; but he put his note-book back into his pocket.

'Have you made an exhaustive search for Miss Tarrant?' Basil Ransom asked of him. Mr. Pardon, at this inquiry, eyed him with a sudden, familiar archness, expressive of the idea of competition; so that Ransom added: 'You needn't be afraid, I'm not a reporter.'

'I didn't know but what you had come on from New York.'

'So I have—but not as the representative of a newspaper.'

'Fancy his taking you' Mrs. Luna murmured, with indignation.

'Well, I have been everywhere I could think of,' Mr. Pardon remarked. 'I have been hunting round after your sister's agent, but I haven't been able to catch up with him; I suppose he has been hunting on his side. Miss Chancellor told me—Mrs. Luna may remember it—that she shouldn't be here at all during the week, and that she preferred not to tell me either where or how she was to spend her time until the momentous evening. Of course I let her know that I should find out if I could, and you may remember,' he said to Mrs. Luna, 'the conversation