"Her friends can do so. Of course she is aware of the entail."
"Uncle Harvey is frowning most awfully," murmured Mittie.
"I should never have expected Mr. Dalrymple to leave her unprovided for. It is not as if you had been quite the most attentive and devoted of heirs," Francesca said, with a little laugh.
"Your experience of life has not taught you one thing, seemingly."
"What thing?"
"That people are always doing exactly what nobody would have expected of them."
"Well, yes—sometimes; but still, in this case—"
"In this case you wouldn't have expected it? Just so. That only points my doctrine. A 'well-drawn character' in a novel always does what one expects of him, but individuals in real life are not so obliging."
Julia's large black eyes were examining her husband's face.
"Have you been very much bothered? You don't look like yourself—" and her hand stole to his coat-sleeve caressingly.