"Upon my soul you are civil and sisterly!"
"Well, I dare say you would mean to pay, but you wouldn't. It would be sure to turn out so, don't you know? Things always have been like that with you, Augustus."
"Then what the devil do you think I'm to do?"
"Pray don't be violent! I really cannot bear any display of violence. You should remember that it is scarcely a week since poor mamma was taken from us."
"I don't see what that has to do with it. Miranda hasn't been taken from us; that's the point."
Mrs. Dormer-Smith making no answer, her brother continued, after a moment or two—
"You are fertile in objections, but you don't seem to have any plan to suggest."
"Well, an idea did occur to me. I don't know whether you would like it."
"Like it! Probably not. But I am used to sacrifice my inclinations."
"Well, I thought that you might put May into a school in France or Germany, or somewhere, letting her give lessons in English in return for her board and so on. There are plenty of schools where they do that sort of thing. It wouldn't so much matter abroad, because people wouldn't know who she was. You might tide over a year or two in that way."