'
'And under the circumstances,' said Mr. Audley, 'I think Felix is
right.'
'Very well,' said Thomas Underwood, much displeased. 'I have no power
here, and if you and that lad think he can take charge of a house and
a dozen children, you must have it your own way. Only, when they have
all gone to rack and ruin, and he is sick of being a little tradesman
in a country town, he will remember what I said.'
Felix forced back his resentful feelings, and contrived to say, 'Yes,
sir, I know it is a great disadvantage, and that you only wish for
our good; but I do not think anything would be so bad for the
children as to be all cast about the world, with no place to go to,
and becoming strangers to one another; and since there is this way of
keeping them together, it seems right.'
The steadiness of his manner struck Mr. Underwood, and the reply was
not unkind.
'You are a good boy at bottom, Felix, and mean well, and I am only
sorry not to be able to hinder you from throwing yourself away for
life by trying to do what is morally impossible, in a foolish spirit
of independence. Do not interrupt. I warn you that I am not to be
appealed to for getting you out of the difficulties you are plunging
into; but of course your brother and sister will be mine as before;
and as I promised myself to do the same by your mother as by your
father--my near cousins both--here is to cover necessary expenses.
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