Groome
consented to accept would not have kept them in a fashionable family hotel,
much less an apartment with several servants.
Moreover, housing room was scarce; they might have been obliged to live
across the Bay; and, in his opinion, the duty of parents to their offspring
never ceased.
Alexina at that time thought every sentiment he expressed "simply great,"
and had continued to feed from her mother's hand even in the matter of pin
money. Mortimer felt it to be right, so he told her, to put his surplus
profits back in his business; all he could spare he needed for "front," to
say nothing of pleasant little dinners at restaurants to their hospitable
young friends; who thought it no adequate return to be asked to dine on
Ballinger Hill.
Moreover, he often gave her a far handsomer present than he should have
done, considering the "hard times;" or at least she would have preferred
that he give her the combined values in the form of a monthly allowance;
she would have enjoyed the sensation of being in a measure supported by her
husband.
However, she and her mother assured each other that he was bound to make a
fortune in time, and then she would have an allowance as large as that of
Sibyl Thorndyke, who had married Frank Bascom.
It had been like playing at marriage. Alexina put it into concrete
words. Subconsciously she had always known it. She had had no cares, no
responsibilities.
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