"And he left his money to his daughters?" asked Millie.
"To Victoria, always his favourite. And he left it to her to do just as she liked with and to behave as she pleased to her sisters."
He had never cared about Clarice and Ellen. He was disappointed because they weren't boys.
"So Victoria's King of the Castle and knows she is, too, for all that she's a good, kind-hearted woman. Are you interested in human beings, Miss——?"
"Trenchard," said Millie. "I am."
"Well if you really are you've come to the right place. You won't find anything more interesting in the whole of London. Here you have right in front of your nose that curious specimen of the human family, the New Rich, and you have it in its most touching and moving aspect—frightened, baffled, confused, bewildered and plundered.
"Plundered! My God! you'll have plenty of opportunity of discovering the Plunderers in the next few weeks if you stay. There are some prime specimens here. If you're a good girl—and you don't look a bad one—you'll have a chance of saving Victoria. Another year like the one she's just gone through and I think she'll be in an asylum!"
"Oh, poor thing!" cried Millie. "Indeed I'm going to do my very best."
"Mind you," he went on, "she's foolish—there never was a more foolish woman. And she can be a tyrant too. Clarice and Ellen have a hard time of it. But they take her the wrong way. They resent it that she should hold the purse and they show her that they resent it. You can do anything you like with her if you make her fond of you. There never was a warmer-hearted woman."
He went over to Millie's desk and stood close to her. "I'm telling you all this, Miss Trenchard," he said, "because I like the look of you. I believe you're just what's needed in this house. You've got all the enchantment of youth and health and beauty if you'll forgive my saying so. The Enchanted Age doesn't last very long, but those who are in it can do so much for those who are outside, and generally they are so taken up with their own excitement that they've no time to think of those others. You'll never regret it all your life if you do something for this household before you leave it."