"Pish!" said he, "I can't afford to let her out of my control even for a moment."
"So?"
"So."
"But you will have to let her see her relatives, eh?"
"Fortunately she hasn't one blood relation in England. Her mother was an Australian, a Victorian farmer's daughter, and Ottley took good care not to marry the family. She has never even seen one of her mother's people."
"But her father's?"
"She is just as fortunately placed, from my point of view, in this regard. Ottley was the only son. And although I believe there is an old maiden aunt twice removed knocking round somewhere in Wales, I'm not afraid of her. She's bed-ridden and a pensioner. As I'm trustee of the estate she'll do what I tell her and stay where she is or I'll know the reason why."
"I'm sure you will," I agreed with pious fervour.
"The Fates seem to have deliberately conspired to assist me in every possible way," continued Belleville. "The only real woman friend Miss Ottley had, Lady Helen Hubbard, has gone to South America with her husband, and the only man friend who might have helped her sits in that chair. There is not another soul in England who has either the shadow of a right or interest to question my treatment. I'm her sole trustee and as well as that her legal guardian, for although she is over age she does not come into control of her fortune until she is twenty-seven unless she marries in the meanwhile."