“I was going to say that it was not the money question that I cared about. What I want to know is whether they can bring themselves—by-and-by—in time—to look upon me as a daughter and sister.”
“They will try.” The tone in which Mrs. Tancred uttered the sentence plainly showed what, in her opinion, the upshot of the effort would be.
“That is all I can ask of them.”
“And to show that they are in earnest and are willing to give you the chance you asked for, they have generously invited you to stay at the Dower House; I am to send you over this afternoon.”
Perhaps it was excess of joy at this news of her acceptance into the bosom of the Aylmer family that caused half a minute to elapse before Bonnybell was able to ejaculate, with quite the proper emphasis—
“What have I done to deserve such goodness?”
And after the matter-of-fact frankness of Camilla’s answer, “Nothing,” there was another pause.
“Was—the news a great shock to them?”
“Yes.”
“Will they”—there was nothing spurious this time about the quailing accent—“be very severe to me?”