“I’m sorry to say it, Sir, but it doesn’t seem like my home anymore. I mean, since Aunt Hilliard took up residence.”
Lord Harold turned from his mirror to look in his son’s face. “I’m sorry to hear you say so. You know your aunt had no place to turn when your grandmother died. She was quite alone and with barely a competence from the estate.”
“I know, Sir, and I think you have been very generous with her. I just thought that someday she would get back on her feet and make a home for herself. She seems to have made herself a fixture here.”
“I don’t know that she could make an acceptable home with what she was left.”
“Not as acceptable as Chilverton, certainly.”
“Perhaps that is ungenerous, Hugh.”
“I’m sorry, Sir. I don’t want to be ungenerous, but neither do I like to see you made use of.” Hugh put a hand on his father’s arm. “Father, you are the most easy-tempered, unsuspecting fellow going and I have to tell you... you are letting her take advantage.”
“I really don’t see that I can throw the poor woman onto the streets.”
“Of course, but she’s not as poor as you think. Did you know that she has had some money from her aunt Harbury who died some three years ago?”
“No, really. I hadn’t heard it.”
“She has. And I have cause to know that she has invested most of the money from the estate and has done quite well, not to mention the considerable sum she has saved by living on you.”
“How do you know all this?”
“Our lawyer happened to mention the money from her aunt. He had no idea that she would keep it secret. And also, her broker belongs to my club. He congratulated me on having such a shrewd investor in the family and I got the rest out of him.”
“She has said nothing to me about such investments.”
“I daresay not. But now you know it.”
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