"
"As long as you retain your situation, sir; but you perceive how my
Lady concludes her letter."
"An old song, Betty, which she sings whenever the coin does not come
in fast enough to content her. She does not mean what she says; I
know Urania of old. No; I will write back to her, thanking her for
her good offices, but telling her my little girl is too young to be
launched into the world as yet. Though if it were Harriet, she might
not be unwilling."
"Harriet would be transported at the idea; but it is not she whom the
Lady wants. And indeed I had rather trust little Aurelia to take care
of herself than poor Harriet."
"We shall see! We shall see! Meantime, do not broach the subject to
your sisters."
Betty assented, and departed with a heavy heart, feeling that, whatever
her father might believe, the choice would be between the sacrifice of
Aurelia or of her father's agency, which would involve the loss of home,
of competence, and of the power of breeding up her darling Eugene
according to his birth. She did not even know what her father had
written, and could only go about her daily occupations like one under
a weight, listening to her sisters' prattle about their little plans
with a strange sense that everything was coming to an end, and
constantly weighing the comparative evils of yielding or refusing
Aurelia.
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