"She has always been Miss Ashurst to me hitherto, and you know I'm not going to marry her, uncle!" said Maude, almost brusquely.
"What do you think of Miss A. now?" said Gertrude, when the girls were back in their room. "I used to laugh about her being superior! But she has shown herself superior to us with a vengeance! Fancy having her for an aunt, and having to ask her permission to do this and that, and go here and there! Oh, my! Why don't you speak, Maude? why don't you say something about all this?"
"Because I can't trust myself to speak," said Maude hurriedly. "Because I'm afraid of blurting out something that were better left unsaid."
"Oh, then, you're not so pleased at the connection! I'm sure by the way in which you wished your uncle happiness, one would have thought that the dearest wish of your heart had been realised. What do you think of Miss A.'s conduct, I mean as regards this matter?"
"Just what I think of it, and have always thought of it as regards every other matter, that it is selfish, base, and deceitful. That woman came here with a predetermined plan of marrying uncle, and chance has helped her to carry it into effect even more quickly than she anticipated. Tom saw that; he told us so, if you recollect. Poor Tom! he was a dull, unpleasant lad, but he was wonderfully shrewd, and he saw through this woman's tactics in a minute, and determined to spoil them. He would have done so, had he lived, and now, I've no doubt that the very fact of his death has been the means of hurrying uncle into taking this step!"
"Do you think Miss A. cares for uncle, Maude?"
"Cares for him--what do you mean?"
"Well, of course, I don't mean to be awfully fond, and all that sort of thing, like lovers, you know, and all that! What do you think she--well, she's fond of him?"
"Of him?No! she's fond of his name and his position, his money and his influence! She's fond of Woolgreaves; she has become accustomed to its comforts, and she does not choose to give them up!"
"I don't know that Miss A. is to be particularly pitched into for that, Maude," said Gertrude. "I think, perhaps, we ought to look at home before making any such suggestions! We have become accustomed to the comforts of Woolgreaves, and we--at least I--should be uncommonly sorry to give them up!"