His mood was very far from genial that morning, and he had not the smallest desire to detain either of them.

In fact, if he could have dismissed his two young charges altogether, he would have done so with alacrity.

But that unfortunately was out of the question--unless by their behaviour they provoked him to fulfil the very definite threat that he had pronounced to Dinah in the privacy of his wife's room an hour before.
He was very seriously displeased with Dinah, more displeased than he had been with anyone since his soldiering days, and he had expressed himself with corresponding severity.

If she could not conduct herself becomingly and obediently, he would take them both straight home again and thus put a summary end to temptation.

His own daughter had never given him any cause for uneasiness, and he did not see why he should be burdened with the escapades of anyone else's troublesome offspring.