I allude to the immemorial custom of my husband's race, which was good enough for his mother and his mother's mother, for Aggie's own, for his other sisters, for toutes ces dames.

It would have been good enough for my child, as I call her--my dear husband called her HIS--if, not losing her parents, she had remained in her own country.
She would have been brought up there under an anxious eye--that's the great point; privately, carefully, tenderly, and with what she was NOT to learn--till the proper time--looked after quite as much as the rest.

I can only go on with her in that spirit and make of her, under Providence, what I consider any young person of her condition, of her name, of her particular traditions, should be.

Voila, ma chere.

Should you put it to me whether I think you're surrounding Nanda with any such security as that--well, I shouldn't be able to help it if I offended you by an honest answer.