"There's time enough for you to grow up."
Later that night, after dinner, she came over and sat on the arm of his chair.
"I'm not going back to school any more," she said.
"I'm going to stay home and keep house for you."
He smiled. "You'd get bored with that quickly enough," he said. "You'd miss the excitement of school, of boy friends- "
"Boys!" she said scornfully. "I can do without them.
They're a bunch of grubby little animals always mooning after you.
I can't stand them."
"You can't, eh?" he said quizzically. "Just what kind of man would please your majesty?"
She looked down at him seriously.
"I think an older man," she said. "Someone like you, maybe.
Someone who makes me feel safe and secure and needed.
Boys are always trying to get something from you, show that they're stronger, more important."
He laughed. "That's only because they're young."
"I know," she answered, still serious. "That's why they frighten me.
They're only interested in what they want; they don't care about me." She leaned over and kissed the top of his head. "Your hair is so nice with that touch of gray in it." A note of regret came into her voice. "Too bad I can't marry you.
I love you, Father."
"No!" he said sharply, so sharply that he surprised even himself with the inexplicable violence of his reaction.
"No what, Father?" she asked, startled. He got to his feet and stared down at her.
"No, you're not staying home. You're going back to school tomorrow.
I’ll have Peters drive you up."
She stared up at him and her eyes began to well with tears.
Suddenly, she was a little girl again.
"Don't you love me, Father?" she cried. "Don't you want me to stay with you?"
He stared at her for a moment, then compassion filled him. "Of course I love you, darling," he said quietly. "But don't you see, we can't put ourselves in a shell to protect ourselves from the world around us."
"But all I want is to be with you, Daddy!"
"No, child, no," he said patiently. "I know that's the way you feel now but someday, when you're older, and maybe married with children of your own, you'll understand."
She tore herself from his arms and faced him angrily.
"No!" she stormed.
"I’ll never get married! I’ll never have children!
I’ll never let some boy get his dirty hands on me!"
"Rina!" he exclaimed in a shocked voice.
She stared at him dumbly, then her face dissolved into tears again.
"Oh, Father!" she cried in a hurt, broken voice. "Can't you see?
It's not I, it's you who don't understand!"
"Rina, darling," he said, reaching for her. But she had already fled the room. He heard her running footsteps on the staircase, then her door slammed.
He came back to the present slowly, looking down the long dining table at the teacher, then at Rina.
Her eyes were shining, brightly expectant.
"I am sure that if Rina's mother were alive, Miss Bradley," Marlowe said in his oddly formal manner, "she would be as happy as I am to entrust our daughter to your very capable hands."
Margaret Bradley looked quickly down at her soup, so that he could not see the sudden triumph in her eyes.
"Thank you, Mr. Marlowe," she said demurely.
9.
THEY STAYED ON DECK UNTIL THEY HAD PASSED the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, until the water was a bottle green beneath the ship and they could no longer see the shore.
"Excited?" Margaret Bradley asked.
Rina's eyes were sparkling. "It's like a dream."
Margaret smiled.
"It will get better and better.
Right now we'd best go down to our cabin and rest up a bit before dinner."
"But I’m not the least bit tired," Rina protested.
"You will be," Margaret said firmly but pleasantly. "We'll be aboard the Leviathan for six days. You'll have plenty of time to see everything."