‘You might have her to stay with you,’ suggested Mrs. Dulcimer. ‘She would help to amuse your step-daughters.’
Elizabeth Fry and Mary Wolstencroft were coming home for their summer vacation in a few days, a return acutely dreaded by Bella.
‘Well, dear Mrs. Dulcimer, perhaps you are right. It might be as well to have Clementina.’
She could not be more in the way than those two troublesome step-daughters, Bella thought.
‘If you have your sister with you it will prevent people making disagreeable remarks when Captain Standish calls on you,’ said Mrs. Dulcimer. ‘It must be so awkward for a young woman like you to receive a gentleman, when your husband is out.’
‘Captain Standish is not quite a dragon,’ replied Bella, laughing. ‘I am not afraid of him.’
‘My dear, I am told he is a very fascinating man,’ said Mrs. Dulcimer, ‘and that is the worst kind of dragon for a young married woman. He certainly ought to marry Clementina, and if you and I exercise a little diplomacy I believe he will do it. Look at your position. I feel proud of that. If it hadn’t been for me you might have never been Mrs. Piper. Poor Mr. Piper might never have repeated his offer if I had not encouraged him.’
‘You are all that is kind and good,’ said Bella, inwardly rebelling against this patronage and interference.
‘Now go and invite your sister to stay with you, dear. And see that she is becomingly dressed. And you can polish her up a little in the next fortnight. Clementina sadly wants polish. She has never had your opportunities, you know.’