advanced the sum
that I was ready to provide to a million and a half of dollars. That
would have given seven hundred and fifty thousand to each class of
invalid. I did not want money at all badly. All I wanted it for was to
be able to give Nancy Rufford a good time. I did not know much about
housekeeping expenses in England where, I presumed, she would wish
to live. I knew that her needs at that time were limited to good
chocolates, and a good horse or two, and simple, pretty frocks. Probably
she would want more than that later on. But even if I gave a million and
a half dollars to these institutions I should still have the equivalent
of about twenty thousand a year English, and I considered that Nancy
could have a pretty good time on that or less. Anyhow, we had a stiff
set of arguments up at the Hurlbird mansion which stands on a bluff
over the town. It may strike you, silent listener, as being funny if you
happen to be European. But moral problems of that description and the
giving of millions to institutions are immensely serious matters in my
country. Indeed, they are the staple topics for consideration amongst
the wealthy classes. We haven't got peerage and social climbing to
occupy us much, and decent people do not take interest in politics or
elderly people in sport. So that there were real tears shed by both
Miss Hurlbird and Miss Florence before I left that city. I left it quite
abruptly. Four hours after Edward's telegram came another from Leonora,
saying: "Yes, do come. You could be so helpful." I simply told my
attorney that there was the million and a half; that he could invest
it as he liked, and that the purposes must be decided by the Misses
Hurlbird. I was, anyhow, pretty well worn out by all the discussions.
And, as I have never heard yet from the Misses Hurlbird, I rather
think that Miss Hurlbird, either by revelations or by moral force, has
persuaded Miss Florence that no memorial to their names shall be erected
in the city of Waterbury, Conn. Miss Hurlbird wept dreadfully when she
heard that I was going to stay with the Ashburnhams, but she did not
make any comments. I was aware, at that date, that her niece had been
seduced by that fellow Jimmy before I had married her--but I contrived
to produce on her the impression that I thought Florence had been a
model wife. Why, at that date I still believed that Florence had been
perfectly virtuous after her marriage to me. I had not figured it out
that sh