Now it was all owing to her! And things were said so
terrible that she hardly knew how to bear them. Her father had
promised her the twenty pounds, and it was insinuated that all the
comforts of the family must be stopped because of this lavish
extravagance. Her father sat still and bore it, almost without a
word. Both Dolly and Kate were silent and wretched. Mrs. Masters
every now and then gurgled in her throat, and three or four times
wiped her eyes. "I'm better out of the way altogether," she said at
last, jumping up and walking towards the door as though she were
going to leave the room,--and the house, for ever.
"Mamma," said Mary, rising from her seat, "I won't go. I'll write
and tell Lady Ushant that I can't do it."
"You're not to mind me," said Mrs. Masters. "You're to do what your
papa tells you. Everything that I've been striving at is to be
thrown away. I'm to be nobody, and it's quite right that your papa
should tell you so."
"Dear mamma, don't talk like that," said Mary, clinging hold of her
stepmother.
"Your papa sits there and won't say a word," said Mrs. Masters,
stamping her foot.
"What's the good of speaking when you go on like that before the
children?" said Mr. Masters, getting up from his chair. "I say that
it's a proper thing that the girl should go to see the old friend
who brought her up and has been always kind to her,--and she shall
go.
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