There had been a discussion between herself and Janet as to whether Mr.
Tosswill should start taking pupils again in his old age, but they had
decided against it, largely because they felt that the class of pupils
whom he had been accustomed to take before the war, and who could alone
be of any use from the financial point of view, could not now be made
really comfortable at Old Place. Betty was ashamed of feeling how much it
hurt her pride to know how concerned Godfrey would be to find how poor
they had become. She would not have minded this if he had been poor
himself. But she hated the thought of a rich Godfrey, who flung money
about over foolish, extravagant presents, discovering, suddenly, how
altered were their circumstances since the day when he had rushed out
of the house throwing the big cheque kind John Tosswill had shamefacedly
handed to him, on to the floor.
* * * * *
After Betty had had her own cold bath, and had prepared a tepid one for
her father, she dressed quickly, and going over to the dressing-table
in the large, low-ceilinged room--a room which, in spite of the fact
that everything in it was old and worn, had yet an air of dainty charm
and dignity, for everything in it was what old-fashioned people call
"good"--she looked dispassionately at herself in the glass.
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