he turned
appealingly to Sophy:

"Now I ask you _what_ was the use of my sending her to an expensive
Pension school in Paris for two years, if she comes back talking like
this?"

"Oh, for God's sake, let her be natural, Aunt Nelly!" put in Loring. "If
you only knew how refreshing it is to hear one's own lingo after six
weeks or so of England!"

"Didn't you like England, Morry?" asked Belinda.

Loring grinned in the direction of Harold Grey.

"Mr. Grey's presence keeps me from answering with entire candour," he
said, a veiled sneer in his voice. He disliked the presence of Bobby's
tutor in his household extremely. Harold Grey was an acute young man. He
realised this dislike on Loring's part, and returned it with vigour but
discretion. He thought Bobby's step-father "just a bit of a cad." He now
said composedly:

"Pray don't consider me."

But Loring replied: "Oh, there's plenty of time ahead! I'll give you my
sentiments in private, Linda."

Belinda glanced from him to Sophy.

"But _you_ like it, _don't_ you?" she asked.

"Yes. I love England," Sophy answered quietly.

Harold Grey had a "cult" for his pupil's mother. He thought her very
wonderful in every way. Now, when she said in that deep, sweet voice of
hers that she "loved England," he felt that she was really to be
worshipped. And he wondered for the many hundredth time, _how_ she could
have married that "gaudy cub." Dependence of position made Harold even
harder on his employer than Lady Wychcote had been. But then he shrewdly
guessed that it was really the wife and not the husband who employed
him. He was already aware of the antagonism that existed between Loring
and Bobby. "Breakers ahead there, I should say," he told himself.

At Sophy's reply to Belinda, Loring cast an irritated glance at her and
said:

"Oh, Sophy's an out-and-out Anglo-maniac--quite rabid on the subject, in
fact. You can't take _her_ opinion. You wait till _I_ talk to you,
Linda!"

Neither the look nor the tone escaped Belinda. She also saw that Sophy
winced from them--that colour stole into her face and that her lips
tightened a little. Here was a useful sidelight. So Morry was as hotly
American as ever! That was good. Then Sophy must jar on him at times;
for Belinda had decided that she was not very American, not even very
Southern. Belinda thanked her stars that she herself was so aggressively
a daughter of Columbia.

"See how severe Sophy looks at my daring to jest on