The guests through
the fortune of war resolved therefore to depart in a day or two,
making the journey home by easy stages. Mrs. Whately was both polite
and cordial, but she also felt that the family should be alone as
soon as possible, that they were facing problems which could better
be solved without witnesses. It was her hope now to nurse her charge
back to health, and, by the utmost exercise of tact, gain such an
ascendency over the girl as to win her completely. Granting that the
matron's effort was part of a scheme, it was one prompted by deep
affection, a yearning to call her niece daughter and to provide for
the idolized son just the kind of wife believed to be essential to
his welfare. Much pondering on the matter led her to believe that
even if the tidings of Scoville's death had been the cause of the
final prostrating shock, it was but the slight blow required to
strike down one already feeble and tottering to her fall. "He
probably made a strong, but necessarily a passing impression on the
dear child's mind," she reasoned.
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