Mrs. Parke was really alarmed by this determination on the part of the man to whom her husband was heir. All those precautions, (which, if not positively sinful, were so little consistent with the desire to be at rest, which ought to be the prevailing sentiment of old people) were intended to keep John out of his inheritance--to prevent herself from becoming Lady Frogmore. If the old lord succeeded in his wicked plan of living on to an indefinite time, John and she might be old people before they came to their kingdom--nay, more horrible still, John (who took very little care of himself) might die first and leave Letitia only Mrs. Parke for ever, even though little Duke might come to the title. This was a contingency which filled her with horror. She felt that she would willingly have seized the old gentleman and shaken him--but then reflected again with dismay upon his trim, steady figure, his alert walk, his rosy countenance. He looked, when she came to think of it, stronger than John! He had Rogers to watch over him night and day. He had Valentine’s Meat Juice and Brand’s Essence (if these concentrated comforts were invited) administered to him whenever he felt a sinking--he had some sort of elixir of life put into his bath. What he intended was never to die. Mrs. John Parke became pale with the horror of this thought, and she felt that she could not endure the old egotist, the selfish, self-absorbed old man. “It is all I can do to be civil to him at dinner and ask after his cold in the morning. Do for goodness sake amuse him a little, Mary Hill. You don’t feel it as I do--you’ve no cares to distract your mind, and it’s far easier for you to put on a face and sympathize with people about nothing than for me. I’m too sincere for that sort of thing,” Letitia said. “But don’t you think it might be better to pay him a little attention. Just to show that you are interested. If it were only for half-an-hour, Letitia.” “Oh, what is the good of having you in the house with nothing to do if you can’t manage a little thing like that for me, Mary Hill!”