"On what account?"

"For being so absurd as to question sometimes whether my
responsibility doesn't extend beyond stock and share. I ask myself
whether Doran--who so befriended me, and put such trust in me, and
paid me so well in advance for the duties I was to undertake--
didn't take it for granted that I should exercise some influence in
the matter of his daughter's education? Is she growing up what he
would have wished her to be? And if--"

"Why, it's no easy thing to say what views he had on this subject.
The lax man, we know, is often enough severe with his own womankind.
But as you have given me no description of what Cecily really is, I
can offer no judgment. Wait till I have seen her. Doubtless she
fulfils her promise of being beautiful?"

"Yes; there is no denying her beauty."

"As for her _modonite_, why, Mr. Ross Mallard is a singular person
to take exception on that score."

"I don't know about that. When did I say that the modern woman was
my ideal?"

"When had you ever a good word for the system which makes of woman a
dummy and a kill-joy?"

"That has nothing to do with the question," replied Mallard,
preserving a tone of gruff impartiality. "Have I been faithful to my
stewardship? When I consented to Cecily's--to Miss Doran's passing