2/6 You are still dependent upon us;" and she would add with a note of triumph: "Remember, if anything were to happen to your dear father you would have to shift for yourself, for everything has been left to me." Mrs.Thresk meant no harm. She was utterly without imagination and had no special delicacy of taste to supply its place--that was all. People and words--she was at pains to interpret neither the one nor the other and she used both at random. She no more contemplated anything happening to her husband, to quote her phrase, than she understood the effect her barbarous little speech would have on a rather reserved schoolboy. He was shrewd enough to recognise the futility of any attempt. |