"He is thinking only of what may be best for you."
"It would be best for me to stay near him. Whom else has he got?"
All this Mrs. Finn repeated to the Duke as closely as she could, and then of course the father was obliged to speak to his daughter.
"Don't send me away, papa," she said at once.
"Your life here, Mary, will be inexpressibly sad."
"It must be sad anywhere. I cannot go to college, like Gerald, or live anywhere just as I please, like Silverbridge."
"Do you envy them that?"
"Sometimes, papa. Only I shall think more of poor mamma by being alone, and I should like to be thinking of her always." He shook his head mournfully. "I do not mean that I shall always be unhappy, as I am now."
"No, my dear; you are too young for that. It is only the old who suffer in that way."
"You will suffer less if I am with you; won't you, papa? I do not want to go to Lady Cantrip. I hardly remember her at all."