h."

"No; I wouldn't have her laugh; but neither would I have her cry.
And she's quite right to wear weeds; but she needn't be so very
outrageous in the depth of her hems, or so very careful that her caps
are becoming. Her eyes will be worn out by their double service. They
are always red with weeping, and yet she is ready every minute with a
full battery of execution for any man that she sees."

"Then why have you consented to go to Yarmouth with her?"

"Just because she's got forty thousand pounds. If Mr Greenow had left
her with a bare maintenance I don't suppose I should ever have held
out my hand to her."

"Then you're as bad as she is."

"Quite as bad;--and that's what makes me want to run away. But it
isn't my own fault altogether. It's the fault of the world at large.
Does anybody ever drop their rich relatives? When she proposed to
take me to Yarmouth, wasn't it natural that the squire should ask me
to go? When I told George, wasn't it natural that he should say, 'Oh,
go by all means. She's got forty thousand pounds!' One can't pretend
to be wiser or better than one's relatives. And after all what can I
expect from her money?"

"Nothing, I should say."

"Not a halfpenny. I'm nearly thirty and she's only forty, and of
course she'll marry again. I will say of myself, too, that no person
living cares less for money."

"I should think no one."

"Yet one sticks to one's rich relatives. It's the way of the world."
Then she paused a moment. "But shall I tell you, Alice, why I do
stick to her? Perhaps you'll think the object as mean as though I
wanted her money myself."

"Why is it?"

"Because it is on the cards that she may help George in his career. I
do not want money, but he may. And for such purposes as his, I think
it fair that all the family should contribute. I feel sure that he
would make a name for himself in Parliament; and if I had my way I
would spend every shilling of Vavasor money in putting him there.
When I told the squire so I thought he would have eaten me. I really
did think he would have turned me out of the house."

"And serve you right too after what had happened."

"I didn't care. Let him turn me out. I was determined he should know
what I thought. He swore at me; and then he was so unhappy at what
he had done that he came and kissed me that night in my bedroom, and
gave me a ten-pound note. What do you think I did with it? I sent it
as a contribution to the next election and G