"You forget that I have dear friends living there."
"Dear friends! Yes; Miss Todd, I suppose. I think we may as well leave Miss Todd alone. At the present moment, I am particularly anxious that you should be attentive to your grandfather."
"But I have never been in the habit of staying at Hadley."
"Then the sooner you get into the habit the better."
"I cannot think why you should wish me to trouble an old man who would not have the slightest pleasure in seeing me."
"That is all nonsense. If you behaved well to him, he would have pleasure. Do you ever write to him?"
"Never."
"Write to him to-day then, and ask whether he would be glad to have you."
Caroline did not answer her husband immediately, but went on buttering her toast, and sipping her tea. She had never yet disobeyed any positive order that he had given, and she was now thinking whether she could obey this order; or, if not, how she would explain to him that she could not do so.
"Well!" said he; "why do you not answer me? Will you write to him to-day?"