"So perhaps, on the whole, it would be more generous on my part to ignore the past and ask him to the house." "After forbidding him to come to it ?" Colonel Bellairs began to lose his temper.
"I shall ask whom I think fit if I choose to do so.

I am master in this house.

If he does not care to come, he can stay away." "Ask him, in that case." "You agree that on the whole that would be best." "Not at all.

I think it extremely undignified on your part, and that it is a pity that you should be so swayed by Aunt Mary as to go by her judgment instead of your own.

You never thought of asking him till she tried to coerce you into it." "I am not going to be coerced by any woman, much less by that man in petticoats," said Colonel Bellairs wrathfully.