Friends and Lovers Read Online Free PDF Page B

touch vaporish, she is a taking child. Ralph is quiet.”
    “It is small wonder if she is vaporish, losing her parents, living in India, then having to cross the ocean with a total stranger.”
    “Mr. Enberg was chosen as he was not a stranger to them. His sister accompanied him, to play nanny. She was Lady Peter’s good friend in India, and has been acting as the children’s mother the past year. They were born in India—it is home to them. It is getting used to England that will take some doing. They’ll settle in comfortably at the Manor. Ralph has already discovered the stables.”
    More rational now, I finally grasped his meaning. He planned to keep the children himself. I was busy at once to alert him to my plan.
    “Live here, in this little cottage?” he asked, astonished. “There is not room to swing a cat. You could not possibly look after them properly—in a manner fitting their station, I mean.”
    “The children of younger sons are not usually raised in a palace,” I pointed out,
    “Particularly when the younger son made such a poor match,” he answered unhesitatingly.
    “As to that, Peter had some money, which belongs to the children now. A larger house could be bought, or hired.”
    “Peter had exactly ten thousand pounds as his portion. He would hardly have gone off to India, had he been wealthy. An annual income of five hundred would not go far to look after the children and your own household. I assume that was your meaning—to remove to this larger house paid for out of Ralph’s income, with your mother and servants.”
    “It would not make much sense to have two separate establishments. We would pay our own way,” I answered hotly, recognizing the inference that I planned to live without expense in the setup.
    “It would make even less sense to set up a new house for the children when I have several dozens of rooms standing idle. They will be raised by me, allowing the interest on the capital to compound, so that they have something substantial by the time they are fledged into the world. When the mother has no dowry to pass off to her daughter, you know, it adds the burden of trying to eke out something from the father’s money.”
    “But you don’t want them! You admitted you consider them a nuisance.”
    “You appear to consider them a bread ticket. I have a duty to my brother’s family. I mean to execute it to the fullest extent.”
    “Your duty is to see them happy and safe. They will be both with me— us! Mama too wants them.”
    He allowed his head to turn slowly around the low-ceilinged, smallish sitting room, with the yellow furniture looking cheap in the full sunlight. “What amenities can you offer, outside of your own company?” he asked bluntly. “Englishmen in India live like kings. The children are accustomed to a good deal of waiting on. There will be nannies and governesses required, soon a tutor for Ralph, expensive schooling to provide. They will expect their mount each, and a groom.”
    “They are only four and six. All these things are not required.”
    “They soon will be. They have already suffered two violent upheavals in their short lives; first losing their parents, then leaving India, coming to a new country. It is my hope to see them permanently settled with me, to give them a feeling of security. They might be happy enough here for a year, two at the outside, at the end of which time another change of life style would be required. It is not necessary to subject them to so many stresses. Let them get used to living as they will always live. I can offer them the advantage of a fine home, a large circle of friends, teach them how to go on in society, offer them every advantage my position and wealth allow. It would be criminally selfish of you to try to restrict them to a genteel cottage, when they could have so much more,”
    “Fine talking, Menrod! You have not once mentioned anything except material advantages. Orphans who have been buffeted