He made a handsome settlement on his eldest daughter on her marriage
and felt he had done well by her, even as she had by him.
His son and elder daughter were distinctly a credit to him.
Five years after Monica's birth Angela unexpectedly was born to the
Kingsnorths.
A delicate, sickly infant, it seemed as if the splendid blood of the
family had expended its vigour on the elder children.
Angela needed constant attention to keep her alive. From tremulous
infancy she grew into delicate youth. None of the strict standards
Kingsnorth had used so effectually with his other children applied
to her. She seemed a child apart.
Not needing her, Kingsnorth did not love her. He gave her a form of
tolerant affection. Too fragile to mix with others, she was brought
up at home. Tutors furnished her education. The winters she passed
abroad with her mother. When her mother died she spent them with
relations or friends. The grim dampness of the English climate was
too rigorous for a life that needed sunshine.
Angela had nothing in common with either her brother or her sister.
She avoided them and they her. They did not understand her: she
understood them only too well!
A nature that craved for sympathy and affection--as the frail so
often do--was repulsed by those to whom affection was but a form,
and sympathy a term of reproach.
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