"He's not the kind to let a thing like this upset him long. While the railroad runs and the housekeeper stays—"
"And Molly's fate?"
"Of course I have thought about Marian. There are ways. It is often done.
She would be with me until she went to school, which won't be long, now."
"But just think what it would mean to her if her mother left her father."
"Oh, not so much, perhaps! I have been a good mother…. And why should I kill the twenty, thirty, maybe forty years left of my life for a child's sentiment for her mother? Very likely by the time she grows up, people will think differently about marriage."
She talked rapidly, as if eager to round all the corners.
"She may even decide to do the same thing some day."
"And you would want her to?"
"Yes! Rather than have the kind of marriage I have had."
"Isabelle!"