.. Let me warn you
that young Scales is a thoroughly bad lot. I know all about him.
He has been living a wild life abroad, and if it hadn't been that
his uncle is a partner in Birkinshaws, they would never have taken
him on again." A pause. "I hope that one day you will be a happy
wife, but you are much too young yet to be meeting young men, and
nothing would ever induce me to let you have anything to do with
this Scales. I won't have it. In future you are not to go out
alone. You understand me?"
Sophia kept silence.
"I hope you will be in a better frame of mind to-morrow. I can
only hope so. But if you aren't, I shall take very severe
measures. You think you can defy me. But you never were more
mistaken in your life. I don't want to see any more of you now. Go
and tell Mr. Povey; and call Maggie for the fresh tea. You make me
almost glad that your father died even as he did. He has, at any
rate, been spared this."
Those words 'died even as he did' achieved the intimidation of
Sophia. They seemed to indicate that Mrs. Baines, though she had
magnanimously never mentioned the subject to Sophia, knew exactly
how the old man had died. Sophia escaped from the room in fear,
cowed.
Pages:
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222