"No doubt; but would that be necessary? Certainly your husband has no claim to the fortune, which he withholds from you."
"If you should make the effort you could doubtless get it back."
"You had better let me ask Mr. Graham to select a reliable lawyer whom you could consult with reference to it."
"Let him have it," she said. "I care nothing for money. As long as you, my dear friend, are content to give me a home I am happier here than I could be with him."
"My dear Mrs. Conrad, it would indeed grieve me if anything should take you from us, even if to your own advantage. You see how selfish I am? But I can't bear to think that that brutal husband of yours is enjoying your money, and thus reaping the benefit of his bad deeds."
"Sometimes I feel so," Mrs. Conrad admitted. "If Oliver were alive I should feel more like asserting my rights, but now all ambition has left me. If I should institute proceedings I should be compelled to return to New York, where everything would remind me of my sad loss. No, my dear friend, your advice is no doubt meant for the best, but I prefer to leave Mr. Kenyon in ignorance of my whereabouts and to keep away from his vicinity. You don't want me to go away, Florette, do you?"
"Don't doe away," pleaded the little girl, putting her arms round Mrs. Conrad's neck.
"You little darling!" said Mrs. Conrad, returning the embrace. "I have something to live for while you love me."
"I don't know but what I shall become jealous," said Mrs. Graham playfully.
"Go and tell your mamma that you love her best," said Mrs. Conrad.
She felt that a mother's claim was first, beyond all others. Nothing would have induced her to come between Florette and the affection which she owed to her mother.
Little Florette ran to her mother and climbed in her lap.
"I love you best, mamma," she said, "but I love my other mamma, too."
"And quite right, my dear child," said Mrs. Graham, with a bright smile. "It was but in jest, Mrs. Conrad. No mother who deserves her child's love need fear rivalry. Florette's heart is large enough and warm enough to love us both."
Mrs. Conrad rejoiced in the liberty to love Florette and to be loved by her, and if ever she forgot her special cause of sorrow it was when she had the little girl in her arms.