‘Papa wants me to go to Lady Cantrip,’ she said.

‘I think he would like it,—­just for the present, Lady Mary.’

Though there had been the closest possible intimacy between the Duchess and Mrs Finn, this had hardly been so as to the intercourse between Mrs Finn and the children.  Of Mrs Finn it must be acknowledged that she was, perhaps fastidiously, afraid of appearing to take advantage of her friendship with the Duke’s family.  She would tell herself that though circumstances had compelled her to be the closest and nearest friend of a Duchess, still her natural place was not among dukes and their children, and therefore in her intercourse with the girl she did not at first assume the manner and bearing which her position in the house would seem to warrant.  Hence the ‘Lady Mary’.

‘Why does he want to send me away, Mrs Finn?’

’It is not true that he wants to send you away, but that he thinks it will be better for you to be with some friend.  Here you must be so much alone.’

’Why don’t you stay?  But I suppose Mr Finn wants you to be back in London.’

’It is not that only, or, to speak the truth, not that at all.  Mr Finn could come here if that were suitable.  Or for a week or two he might do very well without me.  But there are other reasons.  There is no one whom your mother respected more than Lady Cantrip.’

‘I never heard her speak a word about Lady Cantrip.’

‘Both he and she are your father’s intimate friends.’

‘Does Papa want to be—­alone here?’

‘It is you, not himself, of whom he is thinking.’

’Therefore, I must think of him.  Mrs Finn, I do not wish him to be alone.  I am sure it would be better that I should stay with him.’

’He feels that it would not be well that you should live without the companionship of some lady.’

’Then let him find some lady.  You would be the best, because he knows you so well.  I, however, am not afraid of being alone.  I am sure he ought not to be here quite by himself.  If he bids me go, I must go, and then of course I shall go where he sends me; but I won’t say that I think it best that I should go, and certainly I do not want to go to Lady Cantrip.’  This she said with great decision, as though the matter was one on which she had altogether made up her mind.  Then she added, in a lower voice:  ’Why doesn’t papa speak to me about it?’

‘He is thinking only of what may be best for you.’

‘It would be best for me to stay near him.  Whom else has he got?’

All this Mrs Finn repeated to the Duke as closely as she could, and then of course the father was obliged to speak to his daughter.

‘Don’t send me away, papa,’ she said at once.

‘You life here, Mary, will be inexpressibly sad.’

’It must be sad anywhere.  I cannot go to college like Gerald, or live anywhere just like Silverbridge.’