yes,
large and round, and almost blue, full of life and full of courage,
eyes which never seemed to quail, and her mother's dark brown hair,
never long but very copious in its thickness. She was, however,
taller than her mother, and very much more graceful in her movement.
And she could already assume a personal dignity of manner which had
never been within her mother's reach. She had become aware of a
certain brusqueness of speech in her mother, a certain aptitude to
say sharp things without thinking whether the sharpness was becoming
to the position which she held, and, taking advantage of the example,
the girl had already learned that she might gain more than she would
lose by controlling her words.

"Papa wants me to go to Lady Cantrip," she said.

"I think he would like it,--just for the present, Lady Mary."

Though there had been the closest possible intimacy between the
Duchess and Mrs. Finn, this had hardly been so as to the intercourse
between Mrs. Finn and the children. Of Mrs. Finn it must be
acknowledged that she was, perhaps fastidiously, afraid of appearing
to take advantage of her friendship with the Duke's family. She would
tell herself that though circumstances had compelled her to be the
closest and nearest friend of a Duchess, still her natural place was
not among dukes and their children, and therefore in her intercourse
with the girl she did not at first assume the manner and bearing
which her position in the house would have seemed to warrant. Hence
the "Lady Mary."

"Why does he want to send me away, Mrs. Finn?"

"It is not that he wants to send you away, but that he thinks it will
be better for you to be with some friend. Here you must be so much
alone."

"Why don't you stay? But I suppose Mr. Finn wants you to be back in
London."

"It is not that only, or, to speak the truth, not that at all. Mr.
Finn could come here if it were suitable. Or for a week or two he
might do very well without me. But there are other reasons. There is
no one whom your mother respected more highly than Lady Cantrip."

"I never heard her speak a word of Lady Cantrip."

"Both he and she are your father's intimate friends."

"Does papa want to be--alone here?"

"It is you, not himself, of whom he is thinking."

"Therefore I must think of him, Mrs. Finn. I do not wish him to be
alone. I am sure it would be better that I should stay with him."

"He feels that it would not be well that you should live withou