Produced by Barbara Tozier, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
AUTHOR OF "MR. SMITH," "THE BABY'S GRANDMOTHER," ETC.
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 91 & 93 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK LONDON, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA 1908
VII. "I HAVE LOST SOMETHING THAT I NEVER HAD"
IX. "I'D LIKE TO HAVE THINGS ON A SOUNDER BASIS"
XIII. "I AM TO GIVE YOU A WIDE BERTH, ALWAYS"
"She shan't come, then--if you like that better."
"Aye, of course, it's 'But father'--I might have known it would be that. However, you may 'But father' me to the end of my time, you don't move me. I tell you, Sukey, you're a fool. You know no more than an unhatched chicken--and if you think I'm going to give in to their imposition--for it's nothing else--you are mistaken."
"Say what you will, say what you will; my mind's made up; and the sooner you understand that, and Leonore understands that, the better. You can write and tell her so."
"What I say. That she has made her own bed and must lie upon it."
"But you gave your consent to her marriage, and never till now----"
"I tell you, girl, you're a fool. Consent? Of course I gave my consent. I was cheated--swindled. I married my daughter to a rich man, and he dies and leaves her a pauper! Never knew such a trick in my life. And you to stand up for it!"
General Boldero and his eldest daughter were alone, as may have been gathered, and the latter held in her hand, a black-edged letter at which she glanced from time to time, it being obviously the apple of discord between them.
It had come by the afternoon post; and the general, having met the postman in the avenue, and himself relieved him of the old-fashioned leathern postbag with which he was hastening on, and having further, according to established precedent, unlocked the same and distributed the contents, there had been no chance of putting off the present evil hour.
Instead there had been an instant demand: "What says Leonore? What's the figure, eh? She must know by this time. Eh, what? A hundred and fifty? Two hundred? What? Two hundred thousand would be nothing out of the way in these days. Poor Goff wasn't a millionaire, but money sticks to money and he had no expensive tastes. He must have been quietly rolling up,--all the better for his widow, poor child. Little Leonore will scarcely know what to do with a princely income, and we must see to it that she doesn't get into the hands of sharpers and fortune-hunters----" and so on, and so on.