“Oh, you know it all!” she exclaimed
“Only because I have heard it before. It is an old trick. And because he seemed kind and relenting, you tried to understand—and signed something.”
“I WANTED to understand. I WANTED to believe. What did it matter which of us had the money, if we liked each other and were happy? He told me things about the estate, and about the enormous cost of it, and his bad luck, and debts he could not help. And I said that I would do anything if—if we could only be like mother and father. And he kissed me and I signed the paper.”
“And then?”
“He went to London the next day, and then to Paris. He said he was obliged to go on business. He was away a month. And after a week had passed, Lady Anstruthers began to be restless and angry, and once she flew into a rage, and told me I was a fool, and that if I had been an Englishwoman, I should have had some decent control over my husband, because he would have respected me. In time I found out what I had done. It did not take long.”
“The paper you signed,” said Betty, “gave him control over your money?”
A forlorn nod was the answer.
“And since then he has done as he chose, and he has not chosen to care for Stornham. And once he made you write to father, to ask for more money?”
“I did it once. I never would do it again. He has tried to make me. He always says it is to save Stornham for Ughtred.”
“Nothing can take Stornham from Ughtred. It may come to him a ruin, but it will come to him.”