Jasmine was stiff. “Daddy, I really didn’t know there was anything between them...”
Laurence patted his young daughter on the hand, then looked at Julie with disappointment. “You can’t blame Jasmine. Look at you, you’re nothing like the sweet girl she is, running around like a troublemaker all day. Who would like you?”
He looked back at Jasmine, and spoke in a loving tone: “When it comes to choosing a wife, of course decent and gentle girls like Jasmine are everyone’s first choice.”
“Decent? Gentle?” Julie taunted. She twisted her cigarette butt in her hand, then pressed it against the coffee table. A bit ruthlessly, and a little to loudly, she spoke again: “My mother was also decent and gentle—she was even an upper-class lady. Why do you fool around with this disreputable singing woma
