夜雨聆风not come the heavy father quite so much.
You don’t know how maddening it is. If you just wouldn’t fuss so.’
‘I won’t – I really won’t in future,’ I promised her. Franklin came strid-ing along at this minute.
‘Hullo, Judith. Come along. We’re later than usual.’
His manner was curt and really hardly polite. In spite of myself I felt an-noyed. I knew that Franklin was Judith’s employer, that he had a call uponher time and that, since he paid for it, he was entitled to give her orders.
Nevertheless, I did not see why he could not behave with common cour-tesy. His manners were not what one would call polished to anyone, buthe did at least behave to most people with a certain amount of everydaypoliteness. But to Judith, especially of late, his manner was always curtand dictatorial in the extreme. He hardly looked at her when he spoke andmerely barked out orders. Judith never appeared to resent this, but I didon her behalf. It crossed my mind that it was especially unfortunate sinceit contrasted in such a very marked way with Allerton’s exaggerated atten-tion. No doubt John Franklin was a ten times better man than Allerton, buthe compared very badly with him from the point of view of attraction.
I watched Franklin as he strode along the path towards the laboratory,his ungainly walk, his angular build, the jutting bones of his face andhead, his red hair and his freckles. An ugly man and an ungainly man.
