The Incredulity of Father Brown
ought to be. It seems to me this shilly-shallying is rather unfair on everybody."
"Especially on you, I suppose," said Wood a little harshly. "But if you ask me, I'll tell you what I think—I think he's afraid."
"Afraid of being refused?" asked Payne.
"No; afraid of being accepted," answered the other. "Don't bite my head off—I don't mean afraid of the lady. I mean afraid of the picture."
"Afraid of the picture!" repeated Payne.
"I mean afraid of the curse," said Wood. "Don't you remember the rhyme about the Darnaway doom falling on him and her."
"Yes, but look here," cried Payne. "Even the Darnaway doom can't have it both ways. You tell me first that I mustn't have my own way because of the compact, and then that the compact mustn't have its own way because of the curse. But if the curse can destroy the compact, why should she be tied to the compact? If they're frightened of marrying each other, they're free to marry anybody else, and there's an end of it. Why should I suffer for the observance of something they don't propose to observe? It seems to me your position is very unreasonable."
"Of course it's all a tangle," said Wood rather crossly, and went on hammering at the frame of a canvas.
Suddenly, one morning, the new heir broke his
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