"Mrs. Jasher," said Braddock hastily, drinking his coffee, "is a very
sensible woman, who knows when to be silent."
"She is also a good housekeeper, I believe," hinted Miss Kendal
demurely.
"Eh, what? Well? Why do you say that?" snapped Braddock sharply.
Lucy fenced.
"Mrs. Jasher admires you, father."
Braddock grunted, but did not seem displeased, since even a scientist
possessing the usual vanity of the male is not inaccessible to flattery.
"Did Mrs. Jasher tell you this?" he inquired, smiling complacently.
"Not in so many words. Still, I am a woman, and can guess how much
another woman leaves unsaid." Lucy paused, then added significantly:
"I do not think that she is so very old, and you must admit that she is
wonderfully well preserved."
"Like a mummy," remarked the Professor absently; then pushed back his
chair to add briskly: "What does all this mean, you minx? I know that
the woman is all right so far as a woman can be: but her confounded age
and her looks and her unexpressed admiration. What are these to an old
man like myself?"
"Father," said Lucy earnestly, "when I marry Archie I shall, in all
probability, leave Gartley for London."
"I know--I know. Bless me, child, do you think that I have not thought
of that? If you were only wise, which you are not, you would marry
Random and remain at the Fort."
"Sir Frank has other fish to fry, father. And even if I did remain at
the Fort as his wife, I still could not look after you."
"Humph! I am beginning to see what you are driving at. But I can't
forget your mother, my dear. She was a good wife to me."
"Still," said Lucy coaxingly, and becoming more and more the champion of
Mrs. Jasher, "you cannot manage this large house by yourself. I do not
like to leave you in the hands of servants when I marry. Mrs. Jasher is
very domesticated and--"
"And would make a good housekeeper. No, no, I don't want to give you
another mother, child."
"There is no danger of that, even if I did not marry," rejoined Lucy
stiffly. "A girl can have only one mother."
"And a man apparently can have two wives," said Braddock with dry humor.
"Humph!"--he pinched his plump chin--"it's not a bad idea. But of course
I can't fall in love at my age."
"I don't think that Mrs. Jasher asks for impossibilities."
The Professor rose briskly.
"I'll think over it," said he. "Meanwhile, I am going to London."
"When will you be back, father?"
"I can't say. Don't ask silly questions. I dislike being bound to time.
I may be a week, and I may be only a few days. Things can go on here
as usual, but if Hope comes to see you, ask Mrs. Jasher in, to play
chaperon."