That went to
Edward's money-lending friends in Monte Carlo. So she had to get
the twenty-nine thousand back, for she did not regard the
Vandykes and the silver as things she would have to replace. They
were just frills to the Ashburnham vanity. Edward cried for two
days over the disappearance of his ancestors and then she wished
she had not done it; but it did not teach her anything and it
lessened such esteem as she had for him. She did not also
understand that to let Branshaw affected him with a feeling of
physical soiling--that it was almost as bad for him as if a woman
belonging to him had become a prostitute. That was how it did
affect him; but I dare say she felt just as bad about the Spanish
dancer.
So she went at it. They were eight years in India, and during the
whole of that time she insisted that they must be
self-supporting--they had to live on his Captain's pay, plus the
extra allowance for being at the front. She gave him the five
hundred a year for Ashburnham frills, as she called it to
herself--and she considered she was doing him very well.
Indeed, in a way, she did him very well--but it was not his way.
She was always buying him expensive things which, as it were,
she took off her own back.
Pages:
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238