“So you want to get rid of her?”
“What a brutal way of putting it! No. But if Evelyn is ever to be self-reliant it is time she should depend more on herself. You know I am devoted to McDonald. And, what is more, I am used to her. I wasn't thinking of her. You don't realize that Evelyn is a young lady in society, and it has become ridiculous for her to still have a governess. Everybody would say so.”
“Well, call her a companion.”
“Ah, don't you see it would be the same? She would still be under her influence and not able to act for herself.”
“What are you going to do? Turn her adrift after eighteen—what is it, seventeen?—years of faithful service?”
“How brutally you put it. I'm going to tell McDonald just how it is. She is a sensible woman, and she will see that it is for Evelyn's good. And then it happens very luckily. Mrs. Van Cortlandt asked me last winter if I wouldn't let her have McDonald for her little girl when we were through with her. She knew, of course, that we couldn't keep a governess much longer for Evelyn. I am going to write to her. She will jump at the chance.”
“And McDonald?”
“Oh, she likes Mrs. Van Cortlandt. It will just suit her.”
“And Evelyn? That will be another wrench.” Men are so foolishly tender-hearted about women.
“Of course, I know it seems hard, and will be for a little. But it is for Evelyn's good, I am perfectly sure.”