'Why should not anybody else understand her?' Mrs. Dallas asked.
'Should,—but they do not. That's a common case, you know, mother.'
'She has her father; what's the matter with him?'
'He thinks a good deal is the matter with him.'
'Regularly hipped,' said the elder Dallas. 'He has never held up his head since his wife died. He fancies he is going after her as fast as he can go. Perhaps he is; such fancies are often fatal.'
'It would do him good to look after his child,' Mrs. Dallas said.
'I wish you would put that in his head, mother.'
'Does he not look after her?'
'In a sort of way. He knows where she is and where she goes; he has a sort of outward care of her, and so far it is very particular care; but there it stops.'
'She ought to be sent to school.'