e could
dress very cheap and wear our old things. I'm sure I don't want to
run up bills. But if you would only think what Caversham must be
to me, without any one worth thinking about within twenty miles,
you would hardly ask me to stay here.

You certainly did say that if we would come down here with those
Melmottes we should be taken back to town, and you cannot be
surprised that we should be disappointed when we are told that we
are to be kept here after that. It makes me feel that life is so
hard that I can't bear it. I see other girls having such chances
when I have none, that sometimes I think I don't know what will
happen to me.' (This was the nearest approach which she dared to
make in writing to that threat which she had uttered to her mother
of running away with somebody.) 'I suppose that now it is useless
for me to ask you to take us all back this summer,--though it was
promised; but I hope you'll give me money to go up to the
Primeros. It would only be me and my maid. Julia Primero asked me
to stay with them when you first talked of not going up, and I
should not in the least object to reminding her, only it should be
done at once. Their house in Queen's Gate is very large, and I
know they've a room. They all ride, and I should want a horse; but
there would be nothing else, as they have plenty of carriages, and
the groom who rides with Julia would do for both of us. Pray
answer this at once, papa.

Your affectionate daughter,

GEORGIANA LONGESTAFFE.

Mr Longestaffe did condescend to read the letter. He, though he had
rebuked his mutinous daughter with stern severity, was also to some
extent afraid of her. At a sudden burst he could stand upon his
authority, and assume his position with parental dignity; but not the
less did he dread the wearing toil of continued domestic strife. He
thought that upon the whole his daughter liked a row in the house. If
not, there surely would not be so many rows. He himself thoroughly
hated them. He had not any very lively interest in life. He did not
read much; he did not talk much; he was not specially fond of eating
and drinking; he did not gamble, and he did not care for the farm. To
stand about the door and hall and public rooms of the clubs to which he
belonged and hear other men talk politics or scandal, was what he
liked better than anything else in the world. But he was quite willing
to