'Do you know any sort of quarrel that isn't? It is impossible to say beforehand what Colonel Gainsborough might like to do. He's a fidgety man. If there's a thing I hate, in the human line, it's a fidget. You can't reason with 'em.'
'Then what would become of that child, mother, if her father were really to die?'
Pitt spoke now with a little anxiety; but Mrs. Dallas answered coolly.
'He would make the necessary arrangements.'
'But they have no friends here, and no relations. It would be dreadfully forlorn for her. Mother, if Colonel Gainsborough should die, wouldn't it be kind if you were to take her?'
'Too kind,' said Mr. Dallas. 'There is such a thing as being too kind,
Pitt. Did you never hear of it?'
'I do not comprehend, sir. What objection could there be? The child is not a common child; she is one that anybody might like to have in the house. I should think you and my mother might enjoy it very much, especially with me away.'
'Especially,' said the elder man drily. 'Well, Pitt, perhaps you are right; but for me there is this serious objection, that she is a dissenter.'
'A dissenter!' echoed Pitt in unfeigned astonishment. 'What is a "dissenter," here in the new country?'
'Very much the same thing that he is in the old country, I suspect.'