"Resolved on what?" said the squire, turning his eyes full upon her.

"We have resolved to leave the Small House."

"Leave the Small House!" he said, repeating her words; "and where on
earth do you mean to go?"

"We think we shall go into Guestwick."

"And why?"

"Ah, that is so hard to explain. If you would only accept the fact as
I tell it to you, and not ask for the reasons which have guided me!"

"But that is out of the question, Mary. In such a matter as that I
must ask your reasons; and I must tell you also that, in my opinion,
you will not be doing your duty to your daughters in carrying out
such an intention, unless your reasons are very strong indeed."

"But they are very strong," said Mrs Dale; and then she paused.

"I cannot understand it," said the squire. "I cannot bring myself
to believe that you are really in earnest. Are you not comfortable
there?"

"More comfortable than we have any right to be with our means."

"But I thought you always did very nicely with your money. You never
get into debt."

"No; I never get into debt. It is not that, exactly. The fact is,
Mr Dale, we have no right to live there without paying rent; but we
could not afford to live there if we did pay rent."

"Who has talked about rent?" he said, jumping up from his chair.
"Some one has been speaking falsehoods of me behind my back." No
gleam of the real truth had yet come to him. No idea had reached his
mind that his relatives thought it necessary to leave his house in
consequence of any word that he himself had spoken. He had never
considered himself to have been in any special way generous to them,
and would not have thought it reasonable that they should abandon the
house in which they had been living, even if his anger against them
had been strong and hot. "Mary," he said, "I must insist upon getting
to the bottom of this. As for your leaving the house, it is out of
the question. Where can you be better off, or so well? As to going
into Guestwick, what sort of life would there be for the girls? I
put all that aside as out of the question; but I must know what has
induced you to make such a proposition. Tell me honestly,--has any
one spoken evil of me behind my back?"

Mrs Dale had been prepared for opposition and for reproach; but there
was a decision about the squire's words, and an air of masterdom in
his manner, which made her recognise more fully than she had yet done
the difficulty of her position. She alm