"Is that why you dislike them so?"
"How do you know I dislike them?" he asked, seeming surprised.
"It's pretty evident, isn't it? And it would be a good reason for disliking the mother anyhow."
"But not the daughter?"
"No, and you seem to dislike the daughter too—which isn't fair."
"Oh, I take the family in the lump. And I don't know that what we've been talking of has anything to do with it."
He did not seem inclined to talk more about the Gainsboroughs, though his frown told her that something distasteful was still in his thoughts. What he had said was enough to rouse in her a great interest and curiosity about this girl who was his heir. Questions and rights attracted her mind very little till they came to mean people; then she was keen on the track of the human side of the matter. The girl whom he chose to call his heir was really the owner of Blent!
"Are you going to ask us to the funeral?" she said.
"I'm not going to ask anybody. The churchyard is free; they can come if they like."