And she quickly got out of the room.
The Doctor stood staring; he wondered whether his daughter were
serious. Catherine went straight to her own room, and by the time
she reached it she bethought herself that there was something else--
something better--she might have said. She almost wished, now, that
her father would ask his question again, so that she might reply:
"Oh yes, Mr. Morris Townsend proposed to me, and I refused him!"
The Doctor, however, began to put his questions elsewhere; it
naturally having occurred to him that he ought to inform himself
properly about this handsome young man who had formed the habit of
running in and out of his house. He addressed himself to the younger
of his sisters, Mrs. Almond--not going to her for the purpose; there
was no such hurry as that--but having made a note of the matter for
the first opportunity. The Doctor was never eager, never impatient
nor nervous; but he made notes of everything, and he regularly
consulted his notes. Among them the information he obtained from
Mrs. Almond about Morris Townsend took its place.
"Lavinia has already been to ask me," she said. "Lavinia is most
excited; I don't understand it. It's not, after all, Lavinia that
the young man is supposed to have designs upon. She is very
peculiar."
"Ah, my dear," the Doctor replied, "she has not lived with me these
twelve years without my finding it out!"
"She has got such an artificial mind," said Mrs.
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