He was
conceding so much that I could not withhold so trifling a concession in
return.
'I hope Monica will continue to be kind to poor Milly after I am gone.'
Here there were a few seconds of meditation.
'Maud, you will not, I think, refuse to convey the substance of what I
have just said in a letter to Lady Knollys, and perhaps you would have
no objection to let me see it when it is written. It will prevent the
possibility of its containing any misconception of what I have just spoken:
and, Maud, you won't forget to say whether I have been kind. It would be
a satisfaction to me to know that Monica was assured that I never either
teased or bullied my young ward.'
With these words he dismissed me; and forthwith I completed such a letter
as would quite embody what he had said; and in my own glowing terms,
being in high good-humour with Uncle Silas, recorded my estimate of his
gentleness and good-nature; and when I submitted it to him, he expressed
his admiration of what he was pleased to call my cleverness in so exactly
conveying what he wished, and his gratitude for the handsome terms in which
I had spoken of my old guardian.
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