He answered the thought in her mind. "I know B has got to marry," he said. "She's cut out for it. She was so young last year, and it came as a shock to me that she was already of a marriageable age. I couldn't get used to it--that she wasn't mine any more." "Do you feel like that about it, Dad?" "I don't now. I've got used to the idea." "Of course we shall always be yours, whoever we marry." "Not as you have been, darling. That's impossible. It was old Lady Mansergh who told me that fathers hated their daughters marrying because they had always been first with them, and couldn't be first any longer. That's true, I suppose, if they marry somebody you can't take in. It would certainly have been true of me if Beatrix had married that fellow." He never spoke of Lassigny by name. "But with a man you like and respect it's different. You don't lose everything, even if you can't be first any longer. If he's the right sort of man you gain. I believe your grandfather felt that about me. He loved your mother, and she was very young when we married. He didn't like giving her up, but he was so nice about it that I took particular pains to show him what a lot I thought of him. He was a fine old boy. I wish you'd known him longer, Cara. I believe, when he got used to it, that he was as fond of me as he was of any of his sons. Your mother used to write to him every week, and I used to write to him too. He told me before he died that it had made all the difference to him, the first year of our marriage. She was his only daughter, you see, and that was the time he felt it most." "Should you have felt like that about Francis, if I had wanted to marry him, Dad?" "It would rather have depended on how he felt about me," he said. "Should you about Dick Mansergh?" "I think I should. Yes, I think I should. I like him. He's straight. And he's companionable too. Besides, he'd be giving her all she ought to have. That would count for a good deal." "In what way, Dad?" "Well, you see, you're responsible for bringing up your daughters in a certain way. You take a pride in what they become. You don't want it all thrown away on somebody who isn't up to their level." She laughed. "It all sounds very mercenary," she said. "I don't think it is. A woman's position is her husband's; until she's married it's her father's. You don't want your daughters lessened. It isn't a question of money. It's like to like. Look at that chap your Aunt Prudence married." "He had lots of money." "It's all he did have. A silly fellow! Nobody thinks anything of him beside her. She has to carry him on her back wherever she goes." "Poor Aunt Prudence! It's rather pathetic the way she wants people to like him."