“How can they?” she said in a low voice, and she was moving to check them, when Nina held her back.
“Don’t be vexed with them,” she said deprecatingly, “they are only children. She would not be vexed—indeed, I think she would be glad for them not to be too crushed down.” Lettice’s eyes filled with tears—they were never far to seek in these days—and she sank down again in her seat with a sigh. The boy beside her, a slight, dark-haired fellow, with soft eyes like Nina’s, put his arm caressingly round her waist.
“Dear Lettice,” he said, “I can’t bear to see you looking so very unhappy.”
Lettice submitted to the caress, but scarcely responded to it. “I can’t help it, Arthur,” she replied. “I do not give way to grief wrongly, for I do not allow it to make me neglect any duty. I have been very busy to-day, getting in all the bills and so on that we owe here, writing to the landlord, and all kinds of things. You don’t know all there is upon me.”
A slight glance, which Lettice did not see, passed between Nina and Arthur. It seemed to encourage the boy to say more.
“I know,” he said. “I have seen how busy you have been. But are you sure that it was necessary? You know none of us have any legal authority—we are all minors—and our trustees must settle these things. And it would be so much less painful for you not to force yourself to do it all yourself. Godfrey Auriol will be here to-morrow; he is coming on purpose to get all settled.”
“Godfrey Auriol!” repeated Lettice with a slight tone of contempt. “What can he know about such things? His trusteeship is merely nominal. Of course it was natural and right to name him, our only relative, though not a very near one. But I have never thought of him as really to be considered.”
“You will find yourself mistaken, then, I suspect,” said Arthur, a touch of boyish love of teasing breaking through even his present subdued mood.
Lettice drew herself away from his arm.
“How can you?” she exclaimed, her tears flowing still more freely. “Nina, speak to him. How can he? And—and—Arthur, you can’t know what we have gone through, or you wouldn’t speak so. You weren’t here; you—”