"I knew--I knew you could not mean to be merciless," she faltered.
"Don't go too fast," he replied coldly. "There is much to consider before thanks can appropriately be offered. In the first place, a few questions are necessary. To begin. Have you a daughter bearing a remarkable resemblance to yourself? And was she in London a week or two ago with some friends who have a motor-car--a young man and a young woman?"
Mrs. Mynors sat a moment speechless, considering this new turn of the incredible conversation. "Yes," she faltered at last, "that is quite true. Virginia was in town with our friends, the Rosenbergs."
His lip curled. "_Virginia!_ You named her after yourself!"
"It was my husband's wish," she stammered. "She is the dearest, the best girl in the world!"
"Madam"--with mock reverence--"that is an unnecessary statement; she is your daughter--and she is, I feel sure, in all respects worthy of you. I saw her in a picture-gallery not long ago. Interested by the astonishing likeness, I took pains to overhear some of her conversation. The second Virginia is a replica of the first--which is saying a great deal. You are attached to her, madam."
"Attached to her? Attached to my darling daughter? Are you mad, Osbert?"
"I don't think so. I am still a bachelor, you know, and the proposal which I put before you is this: If your daughter will undertake the position which her mother declined, we will cry quits, you and I."
She had almost screamed in the extremity of her surprise and mortification. Had he struck her with a horsewhip she could not have felt more outraged. Fury, resentment, a wild, combative resistance which she could not recognise as jealousy, deprived her for a while of speech. She was choking, inarticulate with the force of blind feeling which shook her as a tempest shakes a tree.
"You are atrocious!" she ejaculated at last. "Simply atrocious! What can you mean? Virgie won't have you."
"In that case there will be no need of further discussion," was his answer. "In your place, I think I should at least place the offer before her. Should she accept it, I will make you an allowance of three hundred pounds a year for life, besides undertaking the cost of your son's education. Are there other children?"