"We can't have that, you know. It don't do--
in the long run. Very irregular, hey? And your mother, you know--she takes
these things to heart. Goes too far, _I_ say. Sometimes goes a little to
extremes, you know." He grew quite scared as he recalled the scene. "I
shall never forget"--shuddering, he clasped her close. "My darling girl,
let's be happy again! It shall be right as--well, as rain, you know--now.
We'll have you with a child on your knee in no time,--hey?" He seemed to
think that marriage alone could work this boon. Again--as before with
Vicky--Sanchia had not the heart to gainsay him. She allowed him to
speculate as he would; and her mother, returning, found the pair, one on
the other's knee, with the future cut and dried.
But Sanchia rose at her entry.
"Dearest, I must go now," she told him, "but I'll see you again very
soon."
He urged her to stay and dine. "We're quite alone, you know! No ceremony
with our child, hey!"
But she smilingly refused. "No, darling, I won't stop now. I'll come
again--" her mother's stretched lips, stomaching what she could not
sanction, stood, as it were, before the home doors.
He looked wistfully at her--aware, he too, of the sentries at the gate.
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