‘Seeing is believing, they say,’ said Jane. ‘Remember, it is not only me. Think of Rotherwood. And Maurice guesses it too, and Redgie told him great things were going on.’
While Jane was speaking they heard the drawing-room door open, and in another moment Emily came in.
It was true that, as Jane said, she had been deposed. Mr. Mohun had begun by saying, ‘Emily, can you bring me such an account of your expenditure as I desired?’
‘I scarcely think I can, papa,’ said Emily. ‘I am sorry to say that my accounts are rather in confusion.’
‘That is to say, that you have been as irregular in the management of your own affairs as you have in mine. Well, I have paid your debt to Lilias, and from this time forward I require of you to reduce your expenses to the sum which I consider suitable, and which both Eleanor and Lilias have found perfectly sufficient. And now, Emily, what have you to say for the management of my affairs? Can you offer any excuse for your utter failure?’
‘Indeed, papa, I am very sorry I vexed you,’ said Emily. ‘Our illness last autumn—different things—I know all has not been quite as it should be; but I hope that in future I shall profit by past experience.’
‘I hope so,’ said Mr. Mohun, ‘but I am afraid to trust the management of the family to you any longer. Your trial is over, and you have failed, merely because you would not exert yourself from wilful indolence and negligence. You have not attended to any one thing committed to your charge—you have placed temptation in Esther’s way—and allowed Ada to take up habits which will not be easily corrected. I should not think myself justified in leaving you in charge any longer, lest worse mischief should ensue. I wish you to give up the keys to Eleanor for the present.’
Mr. Mohun would perhaps have added something if Emily had shown signs of repentance, or even of sorrow. The moment was at least as painful to him as to her, and he had prepared himself to expect either hysterical tears, with vows of amendment, or else an argument on her side that she was right and everybody else wrong. But there was nothing of the kind; Emily neither spoke nor looked; she only carried the tokens of her authority to Eleanor, and left the room. She thought she knew well enough the cause of her deposition, considered it quite as a matter of course, and departed on purpose to avoid hearing the announcement which she expected to follow.
She was annoyed by finding her sisters in her room, and especially irritated by Jane’s tone, as she eagerly asked, ‘Well, what did he say?’
‘Never mind,’ replied Emily, pettishly.