"Yes, my dear; she is their own; they understand her; they are under no restraint concerning her."
"Honest Mark worships that little beauty," said the duke; "his eyes followed her every movement. She will govern him, and so much the worse for her. Your protegee will have tragedy as well as comedy in her life, Estelle."
"Why call her my protegee?" said Lady Estelle, indolently. "Surely I have sins and follies enough to answer for, papa, without assigning to my protection a child of whom my mother prophesies such evil."
"I wish we could do something for her," said the duke.
"What could we do? She is admirably well kept; she goes to school. If that good Patty Brace could not succeed with her, could we, where life and fashion would fill her head with nonsense? Perhaps I only speak so because I am constitutionally indolent."
"You are quite right. She has too much flattery and indulgence now," said the duchess.
"Sometimes I think that simple, unworldly life is best for everybody," said Lady Estelle. "I get tired of society and display, and fancy I should like to wear a print gown and lie all day under an apple-tree in bloom."
"But apple-trees don't bloom all the year, and the ground is often outrageously damp," laughed the duke.
"And these simple people cannot lie under trees all day, or much of the day; consider they must be making butter and cheese, and curing bacon," added her grace.
"So?" drawled Lady Estelle. "Then no doubt I had better stay as I am."