This was generous in a lady who had brought her husband a nominal five thousand pounds, and who spent his money as freely as if it had been water.
“She cannot remain at school. She is a kind of girl who cannot get on at school. She needs home influences.”
“You mean that she is a horrid rebellious girl who has been expelled from a school, and whom I am to take because nobody else will have her.”
“You are unjust and ungenerous, Maud. The girl has not been expelled. She is a girl of peculiar temper, and very strong feelings, and she is unhappy amidst the icy formalities of an unexceptionable school. Perhaps had she been sent to some struggling schoolmistress in a small way of business she might have been happier. At any rate, she is not happy, and as her people were friends of mine in the past I should like to make her girlhood happy, and to see her well married, if I can.”
“But are there not plenty of other people in the world who would do all you want if you paid them. I’m sure I should not grudge the money.”
“It is not a question of money. The girl has money of her own. She is an heiress.”
“Then she is a ward in Chancery, I suppose?”
“No, she is my ward. I am her sole trustee.”
“And you really want to have her here in our own house, and at The Hook, too, I suppose. Always with us wherever we go.”
“That is what I want—until she marries. She will be twenty in five years, and in all probability she will marry before she is twenty. It is not a life-long sacrifice that I am asking from you, Maud; and, remember, it is the first favour I have ever asked you.”