“No more need be said about that.  All that may come right yet, if you will remain where you are.”

But Mrs Dale knew that “all that” could never come right, and persisted.  Indeed, she would hardly have dared to tell her girls that she had yielded to the squire’s entreaties.  It was just then, at that very time, that the squire was, as it were, in treaty with the earl about Lily’s fortune; and he did feel it hard that he should be opposed in such a way by his own relatives at the moment when he was behaving towards them with so much generosity.  But in his arguments about the house he said nothing of Lily, or her future prospects.

They were to move on the first of May, and one week of April was already past.  The squire had said nothing further on the matter after the interview with Mrs Dale to which allusion has just been made.  He was vexed and sore at the separation, thinking that he was ill-used, by the feeling which was displayed by this refusal.  He had done his duty by them, as he thought; indeed more than his duty, and now they told him that they were leaving him because they could no longer bear the weight of an obligation conferred by his hands.  But in truth he did not understand them; nor did they understand him.  He had been hard in his manner, and had occasionally domineered, not feeling that his position, though it gave him all the privileges of a near and a dear friend, did not give him the authority of a father or a husband.  In that matter of Bernard’s proposed marriage he had spoken as though Bell should have considered his wishes before she refused her cousin.  He had taken upon himself to scold Mrs Dale, and had thereby given offence to the girls, which they at the time had found it utterly impossible to forgive.

But they were hardly better satisfied in the matter than was he; and now that the time had come, though they could not bring themselves to go back from their demand, almost felt that they were treating the squire with cruelty.  When their decision had been made,—­while it had been making,—­he had been stern and hard to them.  Since that he had been softened by Lily’s misfortune, and softened also by the anticipated loneliness which would come upon him when they should be gone from his side.  It was hard upon him that they should so treat him when he was doing his best for them all!  And they also felt this, though they did not know the extent to which he was anxious to go in serving them.  When they had sat round the fire planning the scheme of their removal, their hearts had been hardened against him, and they had resolved to assert their independence.  But now, when the time for action had come, they felt that their grievances against him had already been in a great measure assuaged.  This tinged all that they did with a certain sadness; but still they continued their work.