She felt that, however anxious she might be to assist Charley for his own sake, it was her bounden duty to separate him from her child.

Whatever merits he might have--and in her eyes he had many--at any rate he had not those which a mother would desire to see in the future husband of her daughter.
He was profligate, extravagant, careless, and idle; his prospects in life were in every respect bad; he had no self-respect, no self-reliance, no moral strength.

Was it not absolutely necessary that she should put a stop to any love that might have sprung up between such a man as this and her own young bright-eyed darling?
Put a stop to it! Yes, indeed, most expedient; nay, absolutely necessary--if it were only possible.

Now, when it was too late, she began to perceive that she had not known of what material her own child was formed.

At sixteen, Gertrude and Linda had in reality been little more than children.