"Of course I know all that you've got to say," began Mrs. Carroll.
"Because I wish to explain things a little. Don't be ill-natured, Dorothea."
"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?"
"I do not take anger--against them--out of the room with me."
"The question is one much too big for me. Am I to tell my father?"
"I was thinking that--if you would do so!"
"I cannot tell him that he ought to find five hundred pounds for Mr. Juniper."
"How much would he give her--to be married?"
"Why should he give her anything? He feeds her and gives her clothes. It is only fit that the truth should be explained to you. Girls so circumstanced, when they are clothed and fed by their own fathers, must be married without fortunes or must remain unmarried. As Sophie, and Georgina, and Minna, and Brenda come up, the same requests will be made."
"Poor Potsey!" said the mother. For Potsey was a plain girl.
"If this be done for Amelia, must it not be done for all of them? Papa is not a rich man, but he has been very generous. Is it fair to ask him for five hundred pounds to give to--Mr. Juniper?"
"A gentleman nowadays does not like not to get something."
"Then a gentleman must go where something is to be got. The truth has to be told, Aunt Carroll. My father is willing enough to do what he can for you and the girls, but I do not think that he will give five hundred pounds to Mr. Juniper."