‘What was known? Nothing about him--nothing whatever about him! as Anne was so absurd as to say they know _him_, or their own opinion of him; but they know nothing _about_ him--nobody knows anything about him. Whatever you may think, Letitia, that is quite enough for me.’
‘Oh, my dear, I don’t pretend to understand; but we meet a great many people whom we don’t know anything of. In society we are meeting them for ever.’
‘Pardon me,’ said Mr. Mountford, lifting an emphatic finger; ‘_we_ may know nothing about them, but somebody knows. Now, all I hear of this man is that he is nobody; he may be good or he may be bad, much more likely the latter; but, this being the case, if he were an angel I will have nothing to do with him; neither shall anyone belonging to me. We are well-known people ourselves, and we must form connections with well-known people--or none at all.’
‘None at all; you would not keep her an old maid, papa?’
‘Pshaw!’ said Mr. Mountford, turning away. Then he came back to add a last word. ‘Understand me, Letitia,’ he said; ‘I think it’s kind of you to do your best for Anne, for she is a girl who has given you a great deal of trouble; but it is of no use; if she is so determined to have her own way, she shall not have anything else. I am not the weak idiot of a father you think me; if I have given in to her before, there was no such important matter in hand; but I have made up my mind now: and it may be better for Rose and you, perhaps, if the worst comes to the worst.’
Mrs. Mountford was completely roused now; the numbers, so to speak, dropped from her lips; her work fell on her knee. ‘It is quite true what you say,’ she said, feeling herself on very doubtful ground, and not knowing what to do, whether to express gratitude or to make no reference to this strange and dark saying: ‘she has given me a great deal of trouble: but she is your child, St. John, and that is enough for me.’
He did not make any reply; nor did he repeat the mysterious promise of advantage to follow upon Anne’s disobedience. He was not so frank with his wife as he had been with his daughter. He went to his writing-table once more, and sat down before it with that air of having come to an end of the subject under discussion which his wife knew so well. He did not mean to throw any further light to her upon the possible good that might result to Rose. To tell the truth, this possibility was to himself too vague to count for much. In the first place, he expected Anne to be frightened, and to give in; and, in the second place, he fully intended to live long after both his daughters had married and settled, and to be able to make what dispositions he pleased for years to come. He was not an old man; he was still under sixty, and as vigorous (he believed) as ever he had been. In such a case a will is a very pretty weapon to flourish in the air, but it does nobody much harm. Mr. Mountford thought a great deal of this threat of his; but he no more meant it to have any speedy effect than he expected the world to come to an end. Perhaps most of the injustices that people do by will are done in the same way. It is not comprehensible to any man that he should be swept away and others reign in his stead; therefore he is more free to make use of that contingency than if he believed in it. There would always be plenty of time to set it right; he had not the least intention of dying; but for the moment it was something potent to conjure withal. He reseated himself at his table, with a consciousness that he had the power in his hands to turn his whole world topsy-turvy, and yet that it would not do anybody any harm. Naturally, this feeling was not shared either by Anne, to whom he had made the original threat, nor by his wife, to whom he held out the promise. We all know very well that other people must die--it is only in our own individual case that the event seems unlikely.