Her aunt Julia had gone to Florence with Edith for
the winter, on purpose to make her appear more so; for Miss Tramore
was still the person most scandalised by her secession. Edith and
she, doubtless, often talked over in Florence the destitution of the
aged victim in Hill Street. Eric never came to see his sister,
because, being full both of family and of personal feeling, he
thought she really ought to have stayed with his grandmother. If she
had had such an appurtenance all to herself she might have done what
she liked with it; but he couldn't forgive such a want of
consideration for anything of his. There were moments when Rose
would have been ready to take her hand from the plough and insist
upon reintegration, if only the fierce voice of the old house had
allowed people to look her up. But she read, ever so clearly, that
her grandmother had made this a question of loyalty to seventy years
of virtue. Mrs. Tramore's forlornness didn't prevent her drawing-
room from being a very public place, in which Rose could hear certain
words reverberate: "Leave her alone; it's the only way to see how
long she'll hold out." The old woman's visitors were people who
didn't wish to quarrel, and the girl was conscious that if they had
not let her alone--that is if they had come to her from her
grandmother--she might perhaps not have held out.
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