John, of course, was concerned with this, and had been summoned back suddenly, having had no possible time to let her know.

He who was so true an Englishman must think of his country first.
It seemed like an answer to her prayers, and enabled her to go in and greet her stepfather with calm and quiet.
James Anderton had come from the city in the best of tempers.

The day had been a good one.

He had received his wife's telegram announcing that Halcyone would accompany her on her return, and awaited her arrival with a certain amount of uneasy curiosity and interest.

Would the girl be still so terribly like Elaine and the rest of the La Sarthe--especially Timothy, that scapegrace, handsome Timothy, her father, on whose memory and his own bargain with Timothy's widow he never cared much to dwell?
Yes, she was, d----d like--after a while he decided; with just the same set of head and careless grace, and that hateful stamp of breeding that had so lamentably escaped his own children, half La Sarthe, too.