‘Hush, Georgina, this is no talk for a wife,’ said Theodora, severely.
‘I thought you pitied me!’
‘I do, indeed I do; but I cannot let you talk in that way.’
‘I never do so: no one else would care to hear me.’
‘Now listen to me, Georgina. You say you rely on me as you do on no one else; will you hear me tell you the only way to be happy yourself—’
‘That is past,’ she murmured.
‘Or to stand well in the opinion of others! I am putting it on low grounds.’
‘I know what you are going to say—Go and live in the country, and set up a charity-school.’
‘I say no such thing. I only ask you to be cautious in your manners, to make Mr. Finch of more importance, and not to let yourself be followed by your cousin—’
Again Georgina burst into her ‘thorn crackling’ laugh. ‘Poor Mark! I thought that was coming. People will treat him as if he was a dragon!’