The good Fynes didn't dare to look at each other before this unforeseen
but perfectly authorized guardian, the same thought springing up in their
minds: Poor girl! Poor girl! If the women of the family were like this
too! . . . And of course they would be. Poor girl! But what could they
have done even if they had been prepared to raise objections. The person
in the frock-coat had the father's note; he had shown it to Fyne. Just a
request to take care of the girl--as her nearest relative--without any
explanation or a single allusion to the financial catastrophe, its tone
strangely detached and in its very silence on the point giving occasion
to think that the writer was not uneasy as to the child's future.
Probably it was that very idea which had set the cousin so readily in
motion. Men had come before out of commercial crashes with estates in
the country and a comfortable income, if not for themselves then for
their wives. And if a wife could be made comfortable by a little
dexterous management then why not a daughter? Yes. This possibility
might have been discussed in the person's household and judged worth
acting upon.
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