"Not much, Mrs. Stanburne. But it signifies very little whether I liked it or not, for I have left it."
"Left it! Well, but is not that very imprudent? When gentlemen have a great deal of property in factories, they ought to know all about it, and I have always heard that the only way to do that is to pass a year or two in the trade."
"Very true. But then I shall never have any property in factories, so there is no occasion for me to learn the trade."
Mrs. Stanburne was much astonished, but her good-breeding struggled against curiosity. Edith did not seem to be paying any attention to what was going forward; she looked out of the window, and it was evident that she was mentally absent.
"Edith," Mrs. Stanburne said at last, "do you hear what Jacob says? He says he has left business. I think it is very imprudent; and when I say so, he tells me that he will never have any factories."
Edith lent the most languid attention to her grandmother's piece of information. Her whole conduct was just the reverse of her usual way of behaving. Formerly she had taken the liveliest interest in every thing that concerned her lover, so, to make her listen, he blurted out the truth suddenly in one sentence.
"My uncle has disinherited me. I am going to be a doctor. I am going to learn the profession with Mr. Bardly in Shayton."
Mrs. Stanburne was more surprised by this news than Edith was. "But why?" she asked, emphatically; "why has he disinherited you? I thought you were on the best possible terms. He spoke to you to-day as he was going out of church."
Young Jacob was silent for a minute. Mrs. Stanburne came back to the charge. "But why, I say—why?"
"My uncle wants me to marry a girl of his own choosing, called Sally Smethurst."