"I wish you would understand," she said to him, half impatiently, once, "that I really and truly want to be with the children. What should I do with myself if I went away from them?" "You might travel. You might study. Your income is not a very large one, but still it would give you the opportunity of coming in contact with a lot of things about which you know nothing now." Caroline laughed at this. "Well, that is true. I am woefully ignorant," she said. "It is rather impertinent of me to call myself a governess, but I am studying all the time. Mr. Brenton is educating me. I shall be quite learned in a little while." "I only feel that it is my duty to put before you certain possibilities," Haverford said. And Caroline answered-- "I am very much obliged to you, but I prefer the certainty that I have to all the possibilities in the world." Then there had been a rather brisk passage of arms between them on the subject of Caroline's money. "I wish you would not pretend things to me," the girl had said, when they had first discussed the matter. "I can't help feeling that this is all your doing, that you consider it your duty to make some provision for me; in fact," Caroline had added defiantly, "I don't believe my mother had anything to leave me." After a little pause she said, "And I assure you I don't care in the least to take money from other people, even from you, except, of course, when I earn it...." She was astonished to see how cross he looked. "Evidently," he said, "you have not read those old letters and papers I gave you." And Caroline was obliged to confess she had not done so. "I advise you," Haverford had remarked, "to acquaint yourself with your mother's story, then you will see I have invented nothing." Caroline could be obstinate at times. "Well," was all she had remarked in answer to this, "there may have been something; but I am convinced, Mr. Haverford, you are giving me more than I ought to have." To this, a little stiffly, he said-- "If you are not satisfied with what has been arranged, you can instruct a lawyer to go into the matter. I will give you the address of a very good man." And Caroline had frowned, and then smiled. "You know perfectly well I am not grumbling at you. The idea is ridiculous!" "Are you not?" he had queried, with a smile. "Well, it sounded uncommonly like it." On the whole, however, they were on the best of terms, though they never progressed to intimacy. April was well advanced when the children's mother arrived unexpectedly at Yelverton. She had travelled up from Devonshire without pausing for rest in town, and declared that she was perfectly well; but Agnes Brenton was shocked at her appearance--shocked, too, and pained by the change in her manner. That quiet, apathetic langour was gone; Camilla was all jerks and nerves. She seemed strung up to the highest pitch of excitement. She talked incessantly, and smoked nearly all the time. This was a new habit.