’Yes, my dear; my young folks, as I call them, sometimes:  for I take them very much by the hand, and had them with me last summer, about this time, for a week—­from Monday to Monday—­and very delighted and thankful they were.  For they are very good young people, my dear.  I would not have you think that I only notice them for poor dear Sir Harry’s sake.  No, no; they are very deserving themselves, or, trust me, they would not be so much in my company.  I am not the woman to help anybody blindfold.  I always take care to know what I am about, and who I have to deal with before I stir a finger.  I do not think I was ever overreached in my life; and that is a good deal for a woman to say that has been twice married.  Poor dear Sir Harry (between ourselves) thought at first to have got more, but (with a bit of a sigh) he is gone, and we must not find fault with the dead.  Nobody could live happier together than us:  and he was a very honourable man, quite the gentleman, of ancient family; and when he died I gave Sir Edward his gold watch.’

This was said with a look at her companion which implied its right to produce a great impression; and seeing no rapturous astonishment in Charlotte’s countenance, she added quickly,

’He did not bequeath it to his nephew, my dear; it was no bequest; it was not in the will.  He only told me, and that but once, that he should wish his nephew to have his watch; but it need not have been binding, if I had not chose it.’

‘Very kind indeed, very handsome!’ said Charlotte, absolutely forced to affect admiration.

’Yes, my dear; and it is not the only kind thing I have done by him.  I have been a very liberal friend to Sir Edward; and, poor young man, he needs it bad enough.  For, though I am only the dowager, my dear, and he is the heir, things do not stand between us in the way they usually do between those two parties.  Not a shilling do I receive from the Denham estate.  Sir Edward has no payments to make me. He don’t stand uppermost, believe me; it is I that help him.’

’Indeed! he is a very fine young man, and particularly elegant in his address.’

This was said chiefly for the sake of saying something; but Charlotte directly saw that it was laying her open to suspicion, by Lady Denham’s giving a shrewd glance at her, and replying,

’Yes, yes; he’s very well to look at; and it is to be hoped that somebody of large fortune will think so; for Sir Edward must marry for money.  He and I often talk that matter over.  A handsome young man like him will go smirking and smiling about, and paying girls compliments, but he knows he must marry for money.  And Sir Edward is a very steady young man, in the main, and has got very good notions.’

‘Sir Edward Denham,’ said Charlotte, ’with such personal advantages, may be almost sure of getting a woman of fortune, if he chooses it.’