Sir John would hear nothing of the sort.

For years past he had chosen to consider that his wife was hypochondriacal, and all the medical opinions in London would not have induced him to change that view.

The fact was, as may be guessed, that it did not suit him to leave England, and that for sundry reasons which need not be detailed, he did not wish that Isobel should accompany her mother to what he called "foreign parts." In his secret heart he reflected that if Lady Jane died, well, she died, and while heaven gained a saint, earth, or at any rate, Sir John Blake, would be no loser.

She had played her part in his life, there was nothing more to be made of her either as a woman as a social asset.

What would it matter if one more pale, uninteresting lady of title joined the majority?
Isobel had one of her stormy interviews with Sir John upon this matter of her mother's health.
"She ought to go abroad," she said.
"Who told you that ?" asked her father.
"The doctors.