CHAPTER EIGHT
RASH PROPOSALMr. and Mrs. Barton had had a peaceful week-end, only troubled by a slight anxiety about Alice’s welfare. A first experience of a big house-party is an ordeal for most girls, and Alice had been about so little. Mrs. Barton had felt rather like a murderess when she detached her clinging daughter from her and sent her off to face the unknown. Mr. Barton had taken the affair more sensibly, but he knew how cold and draughty Pomfret Towers could be, and hoped that Alice would not get one of her bad colds. However, it was no good worrying about what one couldn’t help.
Mrs. Barton, unable to account for a slight feeling of depression which she had refused to recognise as missing her daughter, had laid down her pen for the week-end and read aloud several chapters of he
