chin, but now that she had averted her face every line of her body seemed wholly—and softly, deliciously—feminine. He was obliged to control himself in a way to which he was not used.
"Miss Regan," he said more coldly than he felt was diplomatic but in the only way he could, "you have always made it very plain to me that you would accept no interference from me outside of financial matters. On my part I have attempted more than once to limit or modify certain of your extraordinary activities by the assertion of authority I did not possess. I thought I owed it to your father. I do not know exactly how much you know of my start with your father. I do not know what gave him so great confidence in me when I first met him. I know only that he had it and expressed it. His
