Ma thinks he won't
live long, I heard her say so the other day.
Won't it be jolly for ma and me to come into
a fortune, and live just as we please! I hope
ma will go to New York. It's stupid here, but
I s'pose we'll have to stay for the present."
"Is Carl's letter private?" asked Mrs.
Crawford, after a pause.
"I--I think he would rather I didn't show
it ," returned her husband, remembering the
allusion made by Carl to his stepmother.
"Oh, well, I am not curious," said Mrs.
Crawford, tossing her head.
None the less, however, she resolved to see
and read the letter, if she could get hold of it
without her husband's knowledge. He was
so careless that she did not doubt soon to find
it laid down somewhere. In this she proved
correct. Before the day was over, she found
Carl's letter in her husband's desk. She
opened and read it eagerly with a running fire
of comment.
"`Reasons which we both understand,'" she
repeated, scornfully. "That is a covert attack
upon me. Of course, I ought to expect that.
So he had a hard time. Well, it served him
right for conducting himself as he did. Ah,
here is another hit at me--`Yet I would rather
do either than live in a home made unpleasant
by the persistent hostility of one member.'
He is trying to set his father against me. Well,
he won't succeed. I can twist Dr. Paul Crawford
round my finger, luckily, and neither
his son nor anyone else can diminish my
influence over him."
She read on for some time till she reached
this passage: "While my stepmother and
Peter form a part of your family I can never
live at home.
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