if you did take one and gave up all your home duties you would not
now have a circle of friends there who could be of any use to a
girl of her age. I feel that very likely you would be glad if my
daughter would undertake her, and you are quite right in thinking
that she would like a girl to take into the world. But I must be
frank with you, as I want to save you from pitfalls which I may be
more able to foresee than you can in your secluded home. My dear, I
know that dear old John died without a penny: why if he had had any
fortune as a young man--but, alas! he had none--is it possible
that, in a soldier's life, with, for a few years, a madly
extravagant wife to help him, he could conceivably have saved a
capital that can produce L3000 a year!

"No, my dear Anne, the money is from her mother, and I must tell
you that I've often wondered if that estimable lady is really dead
at all. Then, you know, that I always kept up with John, and that I
knew something about Sir David Bright. To conclude, Rose Bright is
my cousin by marriage, and we are all dumbfounded at finding that
she has been left L800 a year instead of twice as many thousands,
and that the fortune has gone to a lady named Madame Danterre. It
is so old a story that I don't think any one has read the
conclusion aright except myself, and _parole d'honneur_, no one
shall if I can help it. I am too fond of poor John's memory to want
to hurt his child, only for the child's own sake I would not advise
you to bring her up to London. I should keep her quietly with you,
and trust to a man appearing on the scene--it's a thing you _can_
trust to, where there is L3000 a year. I daresay I could send some
one your way quite quietly. But don't bring John's girl to London,
at any rate, just yet.

"I hope we may come within reach of you in the autumn. I should
love to have a quiet day with you and to see Molly.

"Ever yours affectionately,

"JANE DAWNING."

"P.S.--By the way, is the L3000 sure to go on? If it is not, might
it not be as well to put a good bit of it away?"

Thus in one short hour, Molly had been told that her mother was living
but did not want her child; that the ideal of motherly love had in her
own case been a complete fiction; that t