"I see, I
see. Then to make her sure of the money," he put to Vanderbank, "you
MUST marry her?"
"If it depends upon that she'll never get it," Mrs. Brook returned.
"Dear Van will think conscientiously a lot about it, but he won't do
it."
"Won't you, Van, really?" Mitchy asked from the hearth-rug.
"Never, never. We shall be very kind to him, we shall help him, hope and
pray for him, but we shall be at the end," said Mrs. Brook, "just where
we are now. Dear Van will have done his best, and we shall have done
ours. Mr. Longdon will have done his--poor Nanda even will have done
hers. But it will all have been in vain. However," Mrs. Brook continued
to expound, "she'll probably have the money. Mr. Longdon will surely
consider that she'll want it if she doesn't marry still more than if she
does. So we shall be SO much at least," she wound up--"I mean Edward and
I and the child will be--to the good."
Mitchy, for an equal certainty, required but an instant's thought. "Oh
there can be no doubt about THAT. The things about which your mind may
now be at ease--!" he cheerfully exclaimed.
"It does make a great difference!" Mrs. Brook comfortably sighed. Then
in a different tone: "What dear Van will find at the end that he can't
face will be, don't you see? just this fact of appearing to have
accepted a bribe. He won't want, on the one hand--out of kindness for
Nanda--to have the money suppressed; and yet he won't want to have the
pecuniary question mixed up with the matter: to look in short as if he
had had to be paid.
Pages:
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309