"I sometimes think that if I do what
you dislike so much, I ought not to stay with you."
"To stay with me?"
"If I live with you, I ought to obey you."
"If that's your theory, it's certainly mine," said the Doctor, with a
dry laugh.
"But if I don't obey you, I ought not to live with you--to enjoy your
kindness and protection."
This striking argument gave the Doctor a sudden sense of having
underestimated his daughter; it seemed even more than worthy of a
young woman who had revealed the quality of unaggressive obstinacy.
But it displeased him--displeased him deeply, and he signified as
much. "That idea is in very bad taste," he said. "Did you get it
from Mr. Townsend?"
"Oh no; it's my own!" said Catherine eagerly.
"Keep it to yourself, then," her father answered, more than ever
determined she should go to Europe.
CHAPTER XXIII
If Morris Townsend was not to be included in this journey, no more
was Mrs. Penniman, who would have been thankful for an invitation,
but who (to do her justice) bore her disappointment in a perfectly
ladylike manner. "I should enjoy seeing the works of Raphael and the
ruins--the ruins of the Pantheon," she said to Mrs. Almond; "but, on
the other hand, I shall not be sorry to be alone and at peace for the
next few months in Washington Square. I want rest; I have been
through so much in the last four months." Mrs.
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