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.'
'Do you envy them that?'
'Sometimes, papa. Only I shall think of more of poor mama by being
alone, and I should like to be thinking of her always.' He shook
his head mournfully. 'I do not mean that I shall always be
unhappy, as I am now.'
'No, dear; you are too young for that. It is only the old who
suffer in that way.'
'You will suffer less if I am with you; won't you, papa? I do not
want to go to Lady Cantrip. I hardly remember her at all.'
'She is very good.'
'Oh, yes. That is what they used to say to mamma about Lady
Midlothian.
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