“His part in life at sixteen!” said Letitia. “What is that? The schoolroom and his lessons——”
“I should have said a public school, if you and John had listened to me.”
“He is not fit for a public school any more than he is for the affairs of life,” cried Letitia. “Look at him! He’s like a skeleton already. That boy never could hold his own at school. Oh yes, Duke got on very well, and so did Jack and Reggie. They are not at all delicate, but Mar—so long as I have charge of him he shall be taken every care of,” Mrs. Parke said with decision. “There must be no more of this. I shall not sleep a wink all night in the fear that something may happen to him—either brain, and that’s most trying you know on one side of the house, Mr. Blotting—or heart.”
“There’s nothing wrong with Lady Frogmore now? I hear she has never gone back but maintained the improvement. I don’t think it is like a family tendency that sort of thing. Many ladies, they tell me——”
“Oh, Mr. Blotting, they tell you gentlemen a number of foolish things where women are concerned. I have had six children, and did I ever go off my head on any occasion? No. Poor Mary must have had a tendency—and when I think of that, and what a dreadful thing it would be if anything should happen to the boy under my roof.”
“You are very much afraid of anything happening to my nephew Frogmore, Letitia.”
“There it is,” said Letitia. “I knew how it would be—Frogmore!—To give him a false idea of his position when he is not old enough to understand. Yes, Agnes Hill; I am very much afraid. I know what all of you would say if anything happened to the boy while he was with me. You would put your heads together, and you would whisper how much it was to my interest. Oh, I know very well all the attacks that would be made upon us. You would not say anything clear out, but you would insinuate the most horrible things. You know very well yourself that that is what you would do.”
Miss Hill was not insensible to her own imperfections. She did not contradict Letitia. She even understood the anxiety which was not dictated by love or any concern for Mar, which was simply self-regard—a terror for blame. It was not unnatural, and she did not believe that Mrs. Parke would do anything to harm the boy. She said no more. She did not offer to take the responsibility upon herself, and how could she criticize the woman who had it laid upon her, whether she would or no?
“The boy has clearly something in him,” said Mr. Blotting; “he’s not stupid. What he said was very well said, and so evidently genuine and unprepared. It’s a pity he is not more forward in his education. I don’t blame you, Mrs. Parke, nor your husband. I understand your feeling. Still, if you could have made up your mind to the risk—— The last man, Brownlow, don’t you know, the tutor, thought——”
“The last man was an impertinent cad,” said Letitia. “Oh, yes, I pick up the boys’ words as everybody does. He was always unpleasant. His principle was to contradict me whatever was settled on. I wish you would not quote a man like that to me. We have done the best we could for the boy, John and I—— I wish his mother would take him; that would be the natural arrangement. I assure you we would jump at anything that would free us from the responsibility. Well, what is it now?”