t
from the elder lady. So he managed to waylay Mrs. Stanbury before she
descended to the parlour.

"We can't afford it, my dear;--indeed we can't," said Mrs. Stanbury.

"That's not the question, mother. The rent must be paid up to
Christmas, and you can live here as cheap as you can anywhere."

"But Priscilla--"

"Oh, Priscilla! Of course we know what Priscilla says. Priscilla has
been writing to me about it in the most sensible manner in the world;
but what does it all come to? If you are ashamed of taking assistance
from me, I don't know who is to do anything for anybody. You are
comfortable here?"

"Very comfortable; only Priscilla feels--"

"Priscilla is a tyrant, mother; and a very stern one. Just make up
your mind to stay here till Christmas. If I tell you that I can
afford it, surely that ought to be enough." Then Dorothy entered the
room, and Hugh appealed to her. Dorothy had come to Nuncombe only on
the day before, and had not been consulted on the subject. She had
been told that the Clock House was to be abandoned, and had been
taken down to inspect the cottage in which old Soames had lived;--but
her opinion had not been asked. Priscilla had quite made up her mind,
and why should she ask an opinion of any one? But now Dorothy's
opinion was demanded. "It's what I call the rhodomontade of
independence," said Hugh.

"I suppose it is very expensive," suggested Dorothy.

"The house must be paid for," said Hugh;--"and if I say that I've got
the money, is not that enough? A miserable, dirty little place, where
you'll catch your death of lumbago, mother."

"Of course it's not a comfortable house," said Mrs. Stanbury,--who,
of herself, was not at all indifferent to the comforts of her present
residence.

"And it is very dirty," said Dorothy.

"The nastiest place I ever saw in my life. Come, mother; if I say
that I can afford it, ought not that to be enough for you? If you
think you can't trust me, there's an end of everything, you know."
And Hugh, as he thus expressed himself, assumed an air of injured
virtue.

Mrs. Stanbury had very nearly yielded, when Priscilla came in among
them. It was impossible not to continue the conversation, though Hugh
would much have preferred to have forced an assent from his mother
before he opened his mouth on the subject to his sister. "My mother
agrees with me," said he abruptly, "and so does Dolly, that it will
be absurd to move away from this house at present."

"M