You say Isabel wants to be free, and that
her being rich will keep her from marrying for money. Do you think
that she's a girl to do that?"
"By no means. But she has less money than she has ever had before.
Her father then gave her everything, because he used to spend his
capital. She has nothing but the crumbs of that feast to live on,
and she doesn't really know how meagre they are- she has yet to
learn it. My mother has told me all about it. Isabel will learn it
when she's really thrown upon the world, and it would be very
painful to me to think of her coming to the consciousness of a lot
of wants she should be unable to satisfy."
"I've left her five thousand pounds. She can satisfy a good many
wants with that."
"She can indeed. But she would probably spend it in two or three
years."
"You think she'd be extravagant then?"
"Most certainly," said Ralph, smiling serenely.
Poor Mr. Touchett's acuteness was rapidly giving place to pure
confusion. "It would merely be a question of time then, her spending
the larger sum?"
"No- though at first I think she'd plunge into that pretty freely:
she'd probably make over a part of it to each of her sisters.
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