This was what Lady Grafton wanted. She did not like Caroline's marriage, and if her affection for her niece prevented her saying so, she was yet in the state of finding relief by being a little hard on her.
"That's only jealousy," she said. "And at bottom it's the jealousy of the young towards those they look upon as elderly. The fact is that George ought to have married again while he was still a young man. Almost any woman would have been glad enough to have him, and with the right sort of woman he'd have been a husband in a thousand. He was, as long as it lasted. He didn't marry again because he devoted himself to all of you instead, and as long as that lasted he had all he wanted, though not as much as he might have had. Now he's lost it. B hardly thinks of him at all, except when she's with him, and of course he's nothing to you beside your husband. I don't blame you for that. It's natural enough, especially when you're first married. But he loses it all the same."
"I don't believe he feels that he's lost it. Maurice is almost as devoted to him as I am."
Lady Grafton refrained from saying: "So he ought to be," and said instead: "I'm glad to hear that," but in a tone that made Caroline regret that she had brought his name in. Of course Aunt Mary was incapable of understanding what she and Maurice together might be to her father. "I do love him," she said, "as much as ever; even more, I think, because he's been so good to me. I don't believe anybody in the world loves their father more than I do. It doesn't make me love him less because I love my husband. He knows that."
"Oh, my dear, we're not talking about all that. You've given him the love of a daughter; so has B, though she hasn't been as careful about it as you have. It was enough for him as long as you were all with him. Now you can no longer be with him it isn't good enough for him, though no doubt it will always count for a good deal. He wants the love and attention in his home, and he has a right to it if he can get it. What you want to do is to keep him tied down to his position as a father, and a grandfather. You can't see that other people may look upon him in quite a different light. He's an unusually attractive man, and extraordinarily well preserved. You've all had something to do with keeping him young, and I've always said so. It isn't every woman, or even every girl, who falls in love with callow youth."
Caroline had something of her father's equability under attack. "I suppose that's a hit at me," she said with a smile. "I shouldn't be surprised, you know, at anybody falling in love with Dad. I know what a darling he is. But I'm not going to take blame to myself for thinking of him more as a father, or even as a grandfather. Do you think Ella loves him in that way? I know she does love him. You've seen her, haven't you, since I've been away?"
"Yes, I've seen her. What I think is that they're both of them absolutely ready for it. But they might be held back, and a great chance of happiness for both of them lost, by doubts of how you would take it. Now I shan't say any more. You'd better think it over."