“That it is not, Sibyl. Who has been putting such an idea into your head?”
Sibyl looked at him, and was about to say, “Why, mother,” but she checked herself. A cloud took some of the brightness out of her eyes. She looked puzzled for a moment, then she laughed.
“When my own father comes back again we’ll all be rich people. I hope when you are very, very rich you’ll make,” she said, “dear Lady Helen happy. I am very glad, now, my father went to Australia. It gave me dreadful pain at the time, but when he comes back we’ll all be rich. What has he gone about; do you know, Mr. Rochester?”
“Something about a gold mine. Your father is a great engineer, and his opinion with regard to the mine will be of the utmost value. If he says it is a good mine, with a lot of gold in it, then the British public will buy shares. They will buy shares as fast as ever they can.”
“What are shares?” asked Sibyl.
“It is difficult to explain. Shares mean a little bit of the gold out of the mine, and these people will buy them in order to become rich.”
“It’s very puzzling,” said Sibyl. “And it depends on father?”
“Yes, because if he says there is not much gold in the mine, then no one will buy shares. Don’t you understand, it all depends on him.”
“It’s very puzzling,” said Sibyl again. “Are you going to buy shares, Mr. Rochester?”
“I think so,” he answered earnestly. “I shall buy several shares, I think, and if I do I shall be rich enough to ask Lady Helen to marry me.”