"And you mean to tell me," said the female vicaress, rising to her feet in her wrath, "that I—that I—am to go away?"
"I think it will be better, mother."
"And the poor girls!"
"For one or two of them there would be room here," said Arthur, trying to palliate the matter.
"One or two of them! Is that the way you would treat your sisters? I say nothing about myself, for I have long seen that you are tired of me. I know how jealous you are because Lord Stapledean has thought proper to—" she could not exactly remember what phrase would best suit her purpose—"to—to—to place me here, as he placed your poor father before. I have seen it all, Arthur. But I have my duty to do, and I shall do it. What I have undertaken in this parish I shall go through with, and if you oppose me I shall apply to his lordship."
"I think you have misunderstood Lord Stapledean."
"I have not misunderstood him at all. I know very well what he meant, and I quite appreciate his motives. I have endeavoured to act up to them, and shall continue to do so. I had thought that I had made the house as comfortable to you as any young man could wish."
"And so you have."
"And yet you want to turn me out of it—out of my own house!"
"Not to turn you out, mother. If it suits you to remain here for another year—"