solicitude regarding her;
and having no other ties of family, had fallen into habits of life
which made it almost impossible for him to live with her as any other
father would live with his child. Then, when there first sprang
up between them that manner of sharing the same house without any
joining together of their habits of life, he had excused himself to
himself by saying that Alice was unlike other girls, and that she
required no protection. Her fortune was her own, and at her own
disposal. Her character was such that she showed no inclination to
throw the burden of such disposal on her father's shoulders. She was
steady, too, and given to no pursuits which made it necessary that he
should watch closely over her. She was a girl, he thought, who could
do as well without surveillance as with it,--as well, or perhaps
better. So it had come to pass that Alice had been the free mistress
of her own actions, and had been left to make the most she could of
her own hours. It cannot be supposed that she had eaten her lonely
dinners in Queen Anne Street night after night, week after week,
month after month, without telling herself that her father was
neglecting her. She could not perceive that he spent every evening in
society, but never an evening in her society, without feeling that
the tie between her and him was not the strong bond which usually
binds a father to his child. She was well aware that she had been
ill-used in being thus left desolate in her home. She had uttered no
word of complaint; but she had learned, without being aware that she
was doing so, to entertain a firm resolve that her father should not
guide her in her path through life. In that affair of John Grey they
had both for a time thought alike, and Mr Vavasor had believed that
his theory with reference to Alice had been quite correct. She had
been left to herself, and was going to dispose of herself in a way
than which nothing could be more eligible. But evil days were now
coming, and Mr Vavasor, as he travelled up to London, with his
daughter seated opposite to him in the railway carriage, felt that
now, at last, he must interfere. In part of the journey they had the
carriage to themselves, and Mr Vavasor thought that he would begin
what he had to say; but he put it off till others joined them, and
then there was no further opportunity for such conversation as that
which would be necessary between them. They reached home about
eight in the evening, h