“It would be for me to do them, without questioning as to whether I liked them or not.”

“I’m glad you say that, as it will make it easier for us to come to an understanding.  You’ve already guessed, perhaps, that I am looking for a lady to be with my daughter.”

“I thought it might be something of that kind.”

The difficult part of the interview was now to begin, and Pruyn hesitated a minute, considering how best to present his case.  Reflection decided him in favor of frankness, for it was only by frankness on his side that Diane would be able to carry out his wishes on hers.  The responsibility imposed upon him by his wife’s death, he said, was one he had never wished to shirk by leaving his child to the care of others.  Moreover, he had had his own ideas as to the manner in which she should be brought up, and he had put them into practice.  The results had been good in most respects, and if in others there was something still to be desired, it was not too late to make the necessary changes, whether in the way of supplement or correction.  Indeed, in his opinion, the psychological moment for introducing a new line of conduct had only just arrived.

“It is often better not to force things,” Diane murmured, vaguely, “especially with the very young.”

To this he agreed, though he laid down the principle that not to take strong measures when there was need for them would be the part of weakness.  Diane having no objection to offer to this bit of wisdom, it was possible for him to go on to explain the emergency she would be called on to meet.  Briefly, it arose from his own error in allowing Dorothea too much liberty of judgment.  While he was in favor of a reasonable freedom for all young people, it was evident that in this case the pendulum had been suffered to swing so far in one directionthat it would require no small amount of effort on his part and Diane’s—­chiefly on Diane’s—­to bring it back.  In the interest of Dorothea’s happiness it was essential that the proper balance should be established with all possible speed, even though they raised some rebellion on her part in doing it.

He explained Dorothea’s methods in creating her body-guard of young men, as far as he understood them; he described the young people whose society she frequented, and admitted that he was puzzled as to the precise quality in them that shocked his views; coming to the affair with Carli Wappinger, he spoke of it as “a bit of preposterous nonsense, to which an immediate stop must be put.”  There were minor points in his exposition; and at each one, as he made it, Diane nodded her head gravely, to show that she followed him with understanding, and was in sympathy with his opinion that it was “high time that some step should be taken.”