But I may remark, all the same, that he lives like a rich man." "The money's his wife's; she brought him a large fortune." "Mrs.Osmond then is very fond of her stepdaughter; she may do something." "For a love-sick swain you have your eyes about you!" Madame Merle exclaimed with a laugh.
"I esteem a dot very much.

I can do without it, but I esteem it." "Mrs.Osmond," Madame Merle went on, "will probably prefer to keep her money for her own children." "Her own children?
Surely she has none." "She may have yet.

She had a poor little boy, who died two years ago, six months after his birth.

Others therefore may come." "I hope they will, if it will make her happy.

She's a splendid woman." Madame Merle failed to burst into speech.