"
"We don't want to be famous. If Miss Osmond should have everything
pretty it would be enough. When one's as pretty as she one can
afford-well, quite cheap faience. She ought never to wear anything but
muslin-without the sprig," said Rosier reflectively.
"Wouldn't you even allow her the sprig? She'd be much obliged to you
at any rate for that theory."
"It's the correct one, I assure you; and I'm sure she'd enter into
it. She understands all that; that's why I love her."
"She's a very good little girl, and most tidy-also extremely
graceful.
But her father, to the best of my belief, can give her nothing."
Rosier scarce demurred. "I don't in the least desire that he should.
But I may remark, all the same, that he lives like a rich man."
"The money's his wife's; she brought him a large fortune."
"Mrs. Osmond then is very fond of her stepdaughter; she may do
something."
"For a love-sick swain you have your eyes about you!" Madame Merle
exclaimed with a laugh.
"I esteem a dot very much. I can do without it, but I esteem it."
"Mrs. Osmond," Madame Merle went on, "will probably prefer to keep
her money for her own children.
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