Grafton came out of the office, still with the dark look on his face, which was usually so smiling and contented. It cleared for a moment as he greeted Worthing, who had a word or two to say to him about estate matters. Suddenly Grafton said: "I should like to talk to you about something. Give me some lunch, will you? We shall be back about one. Send young Bradby down to us. I'll eat what's prepared for him." When he had mounted again he said to Caroline, "I'm going to talk it over with Worthing. One wants a man's opinion on these matters, and his is sound enough." She felt a trifle hurt, without quite knowing why. "If you find it's all right, you're not going to stop it, are you?" she asked. "How can it be all right?" he asked with some impatience, which hurt her still more, for he never used that tone with her. "I mean, if they love each other." "Oh, love each other!" he exclaimed. "She's hardly out of the nursery. A fellow like that--years older than she is, but young enough to make himself attractive--_he_ knows how to make love to a young girl, if he wants to. Had plenty of practice, I dare say." It was an unhappy ride for Caroline. His mood was one of bitterness, chiefly against Lassigny, but also against Beatrix--though with regard to her it was shot with streaks of tenderness. At one time, he ought not to have let her go away without seeing that there was somebody to look after her and prevent her from getting into mischief--but he had trusted her, and never thought she'd do this sort of thing; at another, she was so young and so pretty that she couldn't be expected to know what men were like. Poor little B! If only he'd kept her at home a bit longer! She was always happy enough at home. To Caroline, with her orderly mind, it seemed that there were only two questions worth discussing at all--whether there was any tangible objection to Lassigny as a husband for Beatrix, and, if her father's objections to her marrying him were so strong, what he proposed to do. She had inherited this orderliness of mind from him. As a general rule he went straight to the heart of a subject, and all subsidiary considerations fell into their proper place. But she could not get an answer to either of these questions, though with regard to the latter he seemed to consider it of great importance to get Beatrix home and talk to her. This would have been very well if it had simply meant that he wanted to find out whether she had pledged herself lightly, and, if he thought she had, do all he could to dissuade her. Or if there had been anything he could have brought up against Lassigny, which might have affected her, other than his being a foreigner, which certainly wouldn't. He never said that he would forbid the marriage, nor even that he would postpone it for a certain period, both of which he could have done until Beatrix should come of age.