At dinner, old Heythorp always sat at one end of the rosewood table and his daughter at the other.  It was the eminent moment of the day.  With napkin tucked high into his waistcoat, he gave himself to the meal with passion.  His palate was undimmed, his digestion unimpaired.  He could still eat as much as two men, and drink more than one.  And while he savoured each mouthful he never spoke if he could help it.  The holy woman had nothing to say that he cared to hear, and he nothing to say that she cared to listen to.  She had a horror, too, of what she called “the pleasures of the table”—­those lusts of the flesh!  She was always longing to dock his grub, he knew.  Would see her further first!  What other pleasures were there at his age?  Let her wait till she was eighty.  But she never would be; too thin and holy!

This evening, however, with the advent of the partridge she did speak.

“Who were your visitors, Father?”

Trust her for nosing anything out!  Fixing his little blue eyes on her, he mumbled with a very full mouth:  “Ladies.”

“So I saw; what ladies?”

He had a longing to say:  ‘Part of one of my families under the rose.’  As a fact it was the best part of the only one, but the temptation to multiply exceedingly was almost overpowering.  He checked himself, however, and went on eating partridge, his secret irritation crimsoning his cheeks; and he watched her eyes, those cold precise and round grey eyes, noting it, and knew she was thinking:  ‘He eats too much.’

She said:  “Sorry I’m not considered fit to be told.  You ought not to be drinking hock.”

Old Heythorp took up the long green glass, drained it, and repressing fumes and emotion went on with his partridge.  His daughter pursed her lips, took a sip of water, and said: 

“I know their name is Larne, but it conveyed nothing to me; perhaps it’s just as well.”

The old man, mastering a spasm, said with a grin: 

“My daughter-in-law and my granddaughter.”

“What!  Ernest married—­Oh! nonsense!”

He chuckled, and shook his head.

“Then do you mean to say, Father, that you were married before you married my mother?”

“No.”

The expression on her face was as good as a play!

She said with a sort of disgust:  “Not married!  I see.  I suppose those people are hanging round your neck, then; no wonder you’re always in difficulties.  Are there any more of them?”

Again the old man suppressed that spasm, and the veins in his neck and forehead swelled alarmingly.  If he had spoken he would infallibly have choked.  He ceased eating, and putting his hands on the table tried to raise himself.  He could not and subsiding in his chair sat glaring at the stiff, quiet figure of his daughter.

“Don’t be silly, Father, and make a scene before Meller.  Finish your dinner.”

He did not answer.  He was not going to sit there to be dragooned and insulted!  His helplessness had never so weighed on him before.  It was like a revelation.  A log—­that had to put up with anything!  A log!  And, waiting for his valet to return, he cunningly took up his fork.