I couldn't tell my aunt that I meant to go away on Saturday." "You have no business which makes imperative calls upon your time." "That means that I can't plead pretended excuses.

But the true reason is that we are dependent." "There is something in that, I suppose." "Not that I am dependent on her.

But my position generally is dependent, and I cannot assist myself." Captain Aylmer found it difficult to make any answer to this, feeling the subject to be one which could hardly be discussed between him and Miss Amedroz.

He not unnaturally looked to be the heir of his aunt's property, and any provision made out of that property for Clara, would so far lessen that which would come to him.

For anything that he knew, Mrs.Winterfield might leave everything she possessed to her niece.