‘She is a good deal broken and subdued, and is more easily repressed than one imagines at her first onset. Besides, she is very proud, and rather afraid, of him, and will not molest him much. Indeed, it is a good arrangement for him; he ought to have care above that of the average landlady.’
‘Will he get it?’
‘I trust so. She has the ways of a respectable servant; and her religious principle is real, though we do not much admire its manifestation. She will be honest and careful of his wants, and look after his child, and nurse him tenderly if he require it!’
‘As if any one but myself would do that! But it is right, and he will be all the better and happier for accepting his duty to her while she lives, if he can bear it.’
‘As he says, it is his only expiation.’
‘Well! I should not wonder if you saw more of me here than hitherto. A born Cockney like me gets inclined to the haunts of men as she grows old, and if your sisters and Charlecote Raymond suffice for the parish, I shall be glad to be out of sight of the improvements he will make.’
‘Not without your consent?’
‘I shall have to consent in my conscience to what I hate in my heart.’
‘I am not the man to argue you away from here,’ said Robert, eagerly. ‘If you would take up the Young Women’s Association, it would be the only thing to make up for the loss of Miss Fennimore. Then the St. Wulstan’s Asylum wants a lady visitor.’
‘My father’s foundation, whence his successor ousted me, in a general sweep of troublesome ladies,’ said Honor. ‘How sore I was, and how things come round.’