THE STEADFAST HEART
mustn’t go if she doesn’t…. I’m twenty years old, Angus Burke—and I won’t be treated that way. I’m going for all of Mary Browning or anybody else…. Will you go with me?” This last was not so much a request as a command.
Angus hesitated. The position was difficult and he did not know what to say nor how to say it. It was obvious to him he must refuse, but how to do so without ungraciousness, without angering Lydia, was an unanswerable problem…. He knew well Lydia’s temper, and the willfulness of her.
“I—I couldn’t go, Lydia,” he said uneasily. “You know Mrs. Browning would go—if she could. She would…. She knows best. I—don’t you see you oughtn’t to go—and I oughtn’t to take you when she says not?”
“Bosh!… I won’t be bossed like that. I can go if I want to. You can get away from the bank if you want to.”
“I—I could get away.” Honesty compelled him to admit this. He could not take refuge in an untrue excuse that business would hold him.
“Then be ready for the early train. I’ll come right to the depot…. I’ve never been to a big circus and—and we’ll have a picnic.” She was excited as a child. “I’ll show folks they can’t drive me all the time.”
“But, Lydia—you—you can’t go. It wouldn’t
245
