"I don't want her to die, for, of course, one is always sorry to lose old relations. Aunt Maria's death was a great shock to me," George explained. "But for Aunt Sophy it would be a happy release, especially as I cannot be master in my own house while she lives. She ought to have gone before Aunt Maria."
"Do you notice any signs of breaking down?"
"In Aunt Sophy. I--I don't much like to be made fun of, Nellie."
"I was trying to cheer you up, as this is not Miss Sophy's funeral. Don't worry about the dear lady; she is perfectly well and thoroughly happy; her health has been much better since we came to Highfield; and I shall be quite astonished if she doesn't live another twenty years. She is a great admirer of the giant tortoise--"
"He's over five hundred years old," cried George in anguish.
"That makes Miss Yard the smallest kind of infant."
"If she lives another two years, I must give her notice. I cannot have her upsetting all my plans--though I quite agree with you she is a dear old lady."
"You should have been number one," she said reproachfully.
"I had to put Aunt Sophy first, because I cannot arrange my own future while she occupies the house. I don't want to say too much about myself."
"I know," said Nellie sympathetically. "That's your way. But you should try to be a little selfish sometimes."
"You are quite right, Nellie; we must think of our own interests. I have wasted far too much time bothering about Aunt Sophy, Kezia, Bessie--"
"And me!!" cried Nellie. "Do let me come in somewhere."
"Not with them. You come in a class by yourself."
"As Aunt Sophy is so good and religious we cannot want her to live on, knowing how much happier she will be in the next world; and then I can settle down as the big man of Highfield--quite the biggest man in the place, and I hope the most respectable. Mr. and Mrs. George Drake, of Windward House, in the parish of Highfield and county of Devon, Esquire, as the lawyers say."
"How unkind! You introduce Mrs. Drake, and then ignore her. You married her at one end of your sentence and divorced her, for no fault whatever, at the other end."
"Married ladies are not credited with separate existences," explained George.
"By lawyers, I mean. They are not distinct entities like spinsters and widows."