"Oh, that is what you think?" he said. "Now we're at the bottom of it. You think that to put it in my hands would be to throw it away! I thought there must be something at the bottom of all this pretty ignorance of business and so forth. Good gracious! that may be well enough for a girl; but when a grandmother pretends not to know, not to interfere, etc., that's too much. So this is what you meant all the time! To put it into my hands would be throwing it away!" "I did not mean to say so, Philip--I spoke hastily, but I must remind you that I am not accustomed to this tone----" "Oh, no, not at all accustomed to it, you all say that--that's Nell's dodge--never was used to anything of the kind, never had a rough word said to her, and so forth and so forth." "Philip--I hope you don't say rough words to my Elinor." "Oh!" he said, "I have got you there, have I. _Your_ Elinor--no more yours than she is--Johnson's. She is my Nell, and what's more, she'll cling to me, whatever rough words I may say, or however you may coax or wheedle. Do you ever think when you refuse to make a sacrifice of one scrap of your hoards for her, that if I were not a husband in a hundred I might take it out of her and make her pay?" "For what?" said Mrs. Dennistoun, standing up and confronting him, her face pale, her head very erect--"for what would you make her pay?" He stood staring at her for a moment and then he broke out into a laugh. "We needn't face each other as if we were going to have a stand-up fight," he said. "And it wouldn't be fair, mamma, we're not equally matched, the knowing ones would all lay their money on you. So you won't take my advice about investing your spare cash? Well, if you won't you won't, and there's an end of it: only stand up fair and don't bother me with nonsense about trustees." "It is no nonsense," she said. His eyes flashed, but he controlled himself and turned away, waving his hand. "I'll not beat Nell for it when I come home to-night," he said. Once more Phil dined at his club that evening and Elinor with her mother. She was in an eager and excited state, looking anxiously in Mrs. Dennistoun's eyes, but it was not till late in the evening that she made any remark. At last, just before they parted for the night, she threw herself upon her mother with a little cry--"Oh, mamma, I know you are right, I know you are quite right. But if you could have done it, it would have given you an influence! I don't blame you--not for a moment--but it might have given you an opening to speak. It might have--given you a little hold on him." "My darling, my darling!" said Mrs. Dennistoun. "No," said Elinor, "there's nothing to pity me about, nothing at all--Phil is always kind and good to me--but you would have had a standing ground. It might have given you a right to speak--about those dreadful, dreadful city complications, mamma."