‘It might have kept the child; but she must have been thicker with him than I ever knew. However I shall have her with me for the future, and in better hands.’
‘You really mean to take her out?’
‘That’s what brought me home. She isn’t happy; that is plain from her letters; and Jane does not know what to make of her, nor Lilias either.’
‘When were your last letters dated?’
‘The last week in September.’
‘Early days,’ muttered the colonel.
‘I thought it an experiment, you know; but you said so much about Lily’s girls being patterns, that I thought Jasper Merrifield might have made her more rational and less flighty, and all that sort of thing; but of course it was a very different tone from what the child was used to, and you couldn’t tell what the young barbarians were out of sight.’
‘So I began to think last winter; but I fancy you will find that she and Lily understand one another a good deal better than they did at first.’
‘I thought she did not receive my intelligence as a deliverance. I am glad if she can carry away an affectionate remembrance, but I want to have her under my own eye.’
‘I suppose that’s all right,’ was the half reluctant reply.