“Then find her one.”

“I have; but you won’t take her.”

“In any case,” he said, in the aggressive tone of a man putting forward a weak final argument, “you couldn’t leave the mother-in-law all alone.”

“I’d take her,” Lucilla said, promptly.  “You have no idea how much I want her, in this big, empty house.  It’s getting to be more than I can do to take care of Aunt Regina all alone.”

Minutes went by in silence; but when Derek turned from the window and spoke, Lucilla shrank with constitutional fear from the responsibility she had assumed.

“Go and ring them up, and tell young Mrs. Eveleth I’m waiting to see her here.”

“But, Derek, are you sure—?”

“I’m quite sure.  Please go and ring them up.”

“But, Derek, you’re so startling.  Have you reflected?”

“It’s quite decided.  Please do as I say, and call them up.”

“But if anything were to go wrong in the future you’d think it was my—­”

“I shall think nothing of the kind.  Don’t say any more about it, but please go and tell Diane I’m waiting.”

The use of this name being more convincing to Lucilla than pledges of assurance, she sped away to do his bidding; but it was not till after she had gone that Derek recognized the fact that the word had passed his lips.

VII

During the half-hour before the arrival of Mrs. Eveleth and Diane, Miss Lucilla’s tact allowed Derek to have the library to himself.  He was thus enabled to co-ordinate his thoughts, and enact the laws which must henceforth regulate his domestic life.  It was easy to silence the voice that for an instant accused him of taking this step in order to provide Diane Eveleth with a home; for Dorothea’s need of a strong hand over her was imperative.  He had reached the point where that circumstance could no longer be ignored.  The avowal that the child had passed beyond his control would have had more bitterness in it, were it not for the fact that her naive self-sufficiency touched his sense of humor, while her dainty beauty wakened his paternal pride.

Nevertheless, it was patent that Dorothea had been too much her own mistress.  Without admitting that he had been wrong in his methods hitherto, he confessed that the time had come when the duenna system must be introduced, as a matter not only of propriety, but of prudence.  He assured himself of his regret that no American lady who could take the position chanced to be on the spot, but allayed his sorrow on the ground that any fairly well-mannered, virtuous woman could fulfil the functions of so mechanical a task, just as any decent, able-bodied man is good enough to be a policeman.

It was somewhat annoying that the lady in question should be young and pretty; for it was a sad proof of the crudity of human nature that the mere residence of a free man and a free woman under the same roof could not pass without comment among their friends.  For himself it was a matter of no importance; and as for her, a woman who has her living to earn must often be placed in situations where she is exposed to remark.