"But-—but," she said, bewildered, "if-—if you mean Esther-—why did
you send her over last night, and let him go out to find her now."
"She is safe, reading to Mrs. Coffinkey," said Ellen. "I did not
know Robert was at home, or I should not have let her come without
me."
"Esther is a very dear, sweet-looking girl," said Caroline. "If only
she were any one else's daughter! Though that does not sound civil!
But I know my dear husband had the strongest feeling about first
cousins marrying."
"Yes, I trusted to your knowing that," said the Colonel. "And I rely
on you not to be weak nor to make the task harder to us. Remembering,
too," he added in a voice of sorrow and pity that made the words
sound not unkind, "that even without the relationship, we should feel
that there were strong objections."
"I know! My poor Bobus!" said Caroline, sadly. "That makes it such
a pity she is his cousin. Otherwise she might do him so much good."
"I have not much faith in good done in that manner," said the
Colonel.
Caroline thought him mistaken, but could not argue an abstract
question, and came to the personal one. "But how far has it gone?
How do you know about it? I see now that I might have detected it in
his tone, but one never knows, when one's children grow up.
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