He
told her, with a laugh, that she could never have behaved even tolerably
to a stupid daughter-in-law. Whereas, let London and society and a few
years of love and living do their work, and Kitty would make one of the
leading women of her time, as Lady Tranmore had been before her. "You'll
help her, you'll train her, you'll put her in the way," he had said,
kissing his mother's hand. "And you'll see that in the end we shall both
of us be so conceited to have had the making of her there'll be no
holding us."
Well, she had yielded--of course she had yielded. She had explained the
matter, so far as she could, to the dazed wits of her paralyzed husband.
She had propitiated the family on both sides; she had brought Kitty to
stay with her, and had advised on the negotiations which banished Madame
d'Estrees from London and the British Isles, in return for a handsome
allowance and the payment of her debts; and, finally, she had with
difficulty allowed the Grosvilles to provide the trousseau and arrange
the marriage from Grosville Park, so eager had she grown in her accepted
task.
And there had been many hours of high reward.
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