It was not a cheerful retrospect; but I had done my best, I could only say "Let me be judged on my intentions." The future... That was what troubled me more. When Will resigns his commission, something must be done to establish him in life until he succeeds his uncle. He is nearly thirty and has never earned a penny beyond his present army pay; _I_ cannot support him indefinitely; and these frantic appeals for a hundred pounds here and five hundred pounds there... I cannot meet them, unless I am to sell the house in Mount Street and give up any little _niche_ that I may occupy. Frankly, I am not prepared to do that. One's frame and setting... If his uncles would make a proper settlement, there would be an end of all our troubles; failing that, I must find him a well-paid appointment. And, in another sense, I want to see him established. Exactly! That is just what I _do_ mean. Thanks to the energy of a few pushful but not particularly well-connected people like my Lady Maitland, social distinctions have ceased to exist in London. I will be as democratic as you please: I swallowed the Americans, I swallowed the South Africans, I swallow the _rastaquouères_ daily; _I_ don't mind sitting between a stock-broker and an actor, but it is a different thing altogether when you come to marriage. My boy has to be protected from the ordinary dangers and temptations; and, though I would do nothing to influence him, it would be highly satisfactory if he met some nice girl with a little money of her own. Naturally one would like to see the choice falling on some one in his own immediate world; but times are changing, and it would be regarded as old-fashioned prejudice if one made too strong a stand against the people who really are the only people _with_ money; or against a foreigner... But this is all rather like crossing the bridge before one comes to the stream... Lying here, _very_ much depressed, I wanted to make provision for the _immediate_ future. Now, would _you_ say I had taken leave of my senses if I suggested that I had some claim on Brackenbury and Spenworth? Does relationship count for nothing? Or gratitude? You shall hear! You remember that, when you left just before my operation, Brackenbury came in to see me. I had sent for him. I am not a nervous woman; but accidents _do_ happen, and I wanted a last word with them all in _case_... just in _case_... Arthur never takes a thought for the future, and I told Brackenbury that, if anything _did_ happen, he would be the _real_ as well as the titular head of the family.