im! It was so that Dorothy argued; but her arguments were
kept to her own bosom. "But I must trust to my dear uncle. I see that I
am not to have a word from you."

The matter was now becoming serious. Here was the eldest girl, one of
six daughters, putting in her claim for five hundred pounds portion.
This would amount to three thousand pounds for the lot, and, as the
process of marrying them went on, they would all have to be maintained
as at present. What with their school expenses and their clothes, the
necessary funds for the Carroll family amounted to six hundred pounds a
year. That was the regular allowance, and there were others whenever Mr.
Carroll wanted a pair of trousers. And Dolly's acerbation was aroused by
a belief on her part that the money asked for trousers took him
generally to race-courses. And now five hundred pounds was boldly
demanded so as to induce a groom to make one of the girls his wife! She
almost regretted that in former years she had promised to assist her
father in befriending the Carroll relations. "Perhaps, Dorothea, you
won't mind stepping into my bedroom with me, just for a moment." This
was said by Mrs. Carroll, and Dolly most unwillingly followed her aunt
up-stairs.

"Of course I know all that you've got to say," began Mrs. Carroll.

"Then, aunt, why bring me in here?"

"Because I wish to explain things a little. Don't be ill-natured,
Dorothea."

"I won't if I can help it."

"I know your nature, how good it is." Here Dorothy shook her head. "Only
think of me and of my sufferings! I haven't come to this without
suffering." Then the poor woman began to cry.

"I feel for you through it all,--I do," said Dolly.

"That poor man! To have to be always with him, and always doing my best
to keep him out of mischief!"

"A man who will do nothing else must do harm."

"Of course he must. But what can he do now? And the children! I can
see--of course I know that they are not all that they ought to be. But
with six of them, and nobody but myself, how can I do it all? And they
are his children as well as mine." Dolly's heart was filled with pity as
she heard this, which she knew to be so true! "In answering you they
have uppish, bad ways. They don't like to submit to one so near their
own age."

"Not a word that has come from the mouth of one of them addressed to
myself has ever done them any harm with my father. That is what you
mean?"

"No,--but with yourself."

"I do not take a