"I shouldn't tell it her, if you mean that, though she were my sister. If she were my wife I should tell her."
"And why your wife?"
"Because then I should be sure it would do no harm."
"Then I find that you can be generous, Mr. Belton. But she knows it all as well as you do."
"I did not tell her."
"Nor did I;—but I should have done so had not Captain Aylmer been before me. And now tell me whether I could ask her to come here."
"It would be useless, as she is going to Aylmer Castle."
"But she is going there simply to find a home,—having no other."
"That is not so, Mrs. Askerton. She has a home as perfectly her own as any woman in the land. Belton Castle is hers, to do what she may please with it. She can live here if she likes it, and nobody can say a word to her. She need not go to Aylmer Castle to look for a home."
"You mean you would lend her the house?"