His mental processes were stiff when the subject related to things apart from the stock market,his horses,and golf,but he was finally understanding that his granddaughter had come to Bel-Air,prepared by accounts which had cast a glamour over everything and everybody in it.
She had evidently found Mrs.Forbes fall below her expectations.He had been disillusioned concerning Mrs.Evringham and Eloise.As yet the halo with which he himself had been invested was intact.Was it to remain so?He still saw how foolish he had been to send for the child.
He still wished,of course,that she was in Chicago now,instead of sitting across there from him in crisp short skirts,her head and shoulders only showing above the high table,and a little smile of good understanding waiting for him each time he looked up.
He had done very well during a lifetime without being hugged,yet the innocent incense,which had been rising spontaneously before him ever since the child entered the dining-room,had a strangely sweet savor.
Such was the joy of breakfast alone with him that it made her feel as if she had a birthday!Perfectly absurd!Quite the most absurd thing that he had ever heard in his life.