She had come to understand that, though I seemed cold and hard (and perhaps was so generally), I was not so to her.

But she would not have help of any kind.

When I pressed her, she told me that she had enough for your keep and education and her own sustenance for the time she must still live; that your father and she had agreed that you should be brought up to a healthy and strenuous life rather than to one of luxury; and she thought that it would be better for the development of your character that you should learn to be self-reliant and to be content with what your dear father had left you.

She had always been a wise and thoughtful girl, and now all her wisdom and thought were for you, your father's and her child.

When she spoke of you and your future, she said many things which I thought memorable.