They could quarrel with their elder sister while the assurance was
still with them that she would be there to forgive them;--but now
that she was going away and that it had come to be believed by both
of them that poor Lawrence had no chance, they were sad and
downhearted. In all that misery the poor attorney had the worst of
it. Mary was free from her stepmother's zeal and her stepmother's
persecution at any rate at night; but the poor father was hardly
allowed to sleep. For Mrs. Masters never gave up her game as
altogether lost. Though she might be driven alternately into
towering passion and prostrate hysterics, she would still come
again to the battle. A word of encouragement would, she said, bring
Larry Twentyman back to his courtship, and that word might be
spoken, if Mary's visit to Cheltenham were forbidden. What did the
letter signify, or all the girl's protestations? Did not everybody
know how self-willed young women were; but how they could be
brought round by proper usage? Let Mary once be made to understand
that she would not be allowed to be a fine lady, and then she would
marry Mr. Twentyman quick enough. But this "Ushanting," this
journeying to Cheltenham in order that nothing might be done, was
the very way to promote the disease! This Mrs. Masters said in
season and out of season, night and day, till the poor husband
longed for his daughter's departure, in order that that point might
at any rate be settled.
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