"Mother didn't speak at once. She seemed to be thinking in her quiet way. Isabel opened her eyes very wide, with a sort of astonished look, and Margot smiled. I don't know how I felt. I tried to keep from thinking anything—except how dear and beautiful it was of my father!"
"'Well?' he said."
"'Can you afford it, my dear?' asked mother."
"'Yes—I can afford it. I can do it. But it's a big sum, and I don't say it will be no loss. It won't mean a serious diminution of income, but it will mean somewhere about forty pounds a year less for all of us now, and for the girls by-and-by. I haven't a thousand pounds of loose money lying at my banker's. If I do this—for the sake of old days—it must be with your consent, mother, and the girls' too.'"
"'I am willing,' Margot said."
"'Father gave her such a look. I shouldn't think she would ever forget it. I wished I had been the first to speak.'"
"'And so am I,' Issy added."
"'My dear, you are much the best judge,' mother said. 'I always leave money affairs in your hands. Colonel Tracy does not deserve it, but if you are inclined—'"
"'And Dolly?'"
"I won't say it was not a struggle. It ought not to have been, of course. I ought to have been glad for Dorothea Tracy, and not to have thought about myself. Only it seemed as if she were to have so much. I didn't grudge her the money for a moment, but I did feel as if I could not be interested or glad."