If you consent,
I will allow you a hundred a year for yourself. Let bygones be
bygones. For the child's sake, say YES! She needs so much that
you can never give her!"
Poor Herminia was sore tried. As for the hundred a year, she
couldn't dream of accepting it; but like a flash it went through
her brain how many advantages Dolly could enjoy in that wealthy
household that the hard-working journalist could not possibly
afford her. She thought of the unpaid bills, the empty cupboard,
the wolf at the door, the blank outlook for the future. For a
second, she half hesitated. "Come, come!" Sir Anthony said; "for
the child's own sake; you won't be so selfish as to stand in her
way, will you?"
Those words roused Herminia to a true sense of her duty. "Sir
Anthony Merrick," she said holding her breath, "that child is my
child, and my dear dead Alan's. I owe it to Alan,--I owe it to
her,--to bring her up in the way that Alan would approve of. I
brought her into the world; and my duty is to do what I can to
discharge the responsibilities I then undertook to her.
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