"She had to. I believe there was more in that than we knew about."
Nancy looked up sharply. "Do you? Why?" she asked.
"Oh, I don't know. I believe it had something to do with her engagement to Jim. She was married pretty soon after, anyhow, and there was no talk of it at the time."
"I wonder if we could find out."
"What's the good? And it's over two years ago now. I wonder if Dick would drive us over to Mountfield to see the babies to-morrow. He won't be able to hunt."
"He won't want to see the babies. Men are so silly in that way. They pretend they don't care for them."
"Father doesn't. He's just as silly about them as we are."
"It isn't silliness in us. We are women, and we understand. If a man does like a baby it's just as a toy."
"All the same, I think it does father credit liking his grandchildren. I should hardly have expected it of him."
"He's getting softer in his old age. Nancy, I wonder how mother persuaded him to let us have a really good governess. He'd think it quite absurd that girls should want to learn anything."