Her instinct had at one time wavered regarding him; but she had seen an incident with a vanished female cook, and though she had not understood, a prejudice had been created in her mind.

She was always contrasting him with M.Fille, who, to her mind, was what a grandfather ought to be.
"I won't have him beholden to you," said Carmen, almost passionately.
"He is of my family," said Jean Jacques firmly and chivalrously.

"There is no question of being beholden." "Let well enough alone," was the gloomy reply.

With a sigh, Jean Jacques turned back to the study of the road before him, to gossip with Zoe, and to keep on planning subconsciously the new things he must do.
Carmen sighed too, or rather she gave a gasp of agitation and annoyance.
Her father?
She had lost whatever illusion once existed regarding him.
For years he had clung to her--to her pocket.

He was given to drinking in past years, and he still had his sprees.