“I hope he would not. I am sure he would not. I have displeased and opposed him too often. I think he will bequeath it in such a manner that it shall be a perpetual monument to himself.”
“He’ll leave it to you, my dear. Nature is nature, even in a man like your father.”
Katherine shuddered.
“If I thought there was any fear of that I would speak to him about it.”
“Oh, good gracious me, child, don’t dream of such a thing!” said Mrs. Massarene, in trepidation. “’Twould be firing dynamite! In the first place, you’d never turn him—nobody ever could—his mind’s made up, you may be sure, and nothing you could say would change it; but, oh Lord! if you was to hint to him that he must die one day, he’d never forgive it; he’s one o’ them as thinks he can square Almighty God. ’Twouldn’t be decent either, you know. ’Twould look as if you was counting on his going and wishing for his pile.”
“If you think it would look like that I will say nothing. But I should beg him to leave me out of his will altogether.”
“He wouldn’t believe you meant it,” said her mother. “He wouldn’t believe anybody could mean it. He would think you was trying to find out how much he’s worth and how much you’ll get.”
Katherine Massarene sighed and abandoned the argument. She went to ride in the Park with a heavy and anxious spirit. The season was odious to her; all which to most women of her age would have been delightful was, to her, tedious and oppressive beyond description. The sense that she was always being pointed out as William Massarene’s daughter destroyed such pleasure as she might have taken in the music, the art, the intellectual and political life of London. The sense that she was continually on show shut up her lips and gave her that slighting contempt and coldness of manner which repelled both men and women. The many offers for her hand which were made were addressed to her father; no one was bold enough to address them to herself. Everybody, except a few aged people, thought her a most disagreeable young woman.
“Refuse every offer made to you—I do not mean to marry,” she had said once to him; and he had replied:
“You will marry when I order you to do so.”