'Then you were appointed Governor-General of Tierra del Fuego.'
'No—come—no. That was not really the case. I believe poor Jane—I mean your mother—was led to think I had gone abroad, lest she should come to town after me and make scenes. She had a violent temper.'
'So you parted with my mother for the sake of your prospects with an aunt and for preferment in the Foreign Office?'
'I would not put it quite in that way. Of course they could not turn me out because I had married your mother, but they would have seen that she was not wholly qualified to shine in a Foreign Embassy. You see she could speak neither French nor Chinese. You comprehend—it would have caused difficulties, embarrassments.'
'But did you get an Embassy?'
'No, no; I remained in the office.'
'Then you threw her over for nothing!'
'No; not quite that. My aunt died a year ago at an advanced age, and has left me very comfortably provided for. I have applied for a pension, and am really in easy circumstances at present—now, just at the time when——' He shivered, and his weak mouth fell. 'It is too tragic to contemplate. I did hope that the Bath waters might have expelled the poison from my veins, but my disorder remains unarrested. It may be rapid in its course, and my dissolution may be near, or it may be slow. I cannot tell. The doctors give me very little hope, in fact, to be candid, none at all. O Winefred, you will nurse me through it?'
'Yes, father, and so will mother.'
'But she hates me. She can never forgive me—and then she is a violent woman. She frightened me years ago. I dislike rough ways and strong tempers. I always did at the time when I was young and strong. Now I cannot endure the least roughness.'