He said querulously, "I don't see why you take that tone with me. You
certainly know what I mean. But if you don't care to deal openly with me,
I won't ask you." He dropped his eyes from her face, and at the same time
a deep blush began to tinge it, growing up from her neck to her forehead.
"You must know--you're not a child," he continued, still with averted
eyes, "that this sort of thing can't go on... It must be something else,
or it mustn't be anything at all. I don't ask you for your confidence,
and you know that I've never sought to control you."
This was not the least true, but Agatha answered, either absently or
provisionally, "No."
"And I don't seek to do so now. If you have nothing that you wish to tell
me--"
He waited, and after what seemed a long time, she asked as if she had not
heard him, "Will you lie down a little before your supper, papa?"
"I will lie down when I feel like it," he answered. "Send August with the
supper; he can look after me."
His resentful tone, even more than his words, dismissed her, but she left
him without apparent grievance, saying quietly, "I will send August."
LXVII.
Agatha did not come down to supper with Burnamy. She asked August, when
she gave him her father's order, to have a cup of tea sent to her room,
where, when it came, she remained thinking so long that it was rather
tepid by the time she drank it.
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