His keen scrutiny detected a flush upon her face while he asked the question and he understood that all he had suspected had been nothing but the truth. Anna had come to love this open-minded lad who had been forced upon them by such an odd train of circumstances; her threats concerning Willy Forrest were the merest bravado. Gessner would have trembled at the knowledge a week ago, but to-night it found him singularly complacent. He listened to Anna's response with the air of a light-hearted judge who condemned a guilty prisoner out of her own mouth.
"Alban Kennedy has many good qualities," she said. "I think he is very worthy of your generosity."
"Ah, you like him, I perceive. Let us suppose, Anna, that my intentions toward him were to go beyond anything I had imagined--suppose, being no longer under any compulsion in the matter, the compulsion of an imaginary obligation which does not exist, I were still to consider him as my own son. Would you be surprised then at my conduct?"
"It would not surprise me," she said. "You have always wished for a son. Alban is the most original boy of his age I have ever met. He is clever and absurdly honest. I don't think you would regret any kindness you may show to him."
"And you yourself?"
"What have I to do with it, father?"
"It might concern you very closely, Anna."
"In what way, father?"
"In the only way which would concern a woman. Suppose that I thought of him as your husband?"
She flushed crimson.
"Have you spoken to him on the matter?"
"No, but being about to speak to him--after dinner to-night."
"I should defer my opinion until that has happened."
He laughed as though the idea of it amused him very much.
"Of course, he will have nothing to do with us, Anna. What is a fortune to such a fine fellow? What is a great house--and I say it--a very beautiful wife? Of course, he will refuse us. Any boy would do that, especially one who has been brought up in Union Street. Now go and look for him in the garden. I must tell Geary to have that cheque drawn out--and mind you, if I meet that fellow Forrest, I will half kill him just to show my good opinion of him. This nonsense must end to-night. Remember, it is a promise to me."
She shrugged her shoulders and left the room with slow steps. Gessner, still smiling, turned up a lamp by his writing-table and took out his cheque-book.