"God forbid too, I say. But one doesn't know what you mean—you're too difficult to follow. One thing, at any rate, you clearly have in your head—that we must take it as possibly on the cards. That's enough to make it remarkably to the point to remind you of the great change that would take place in your situation if she should die."
"What else in the world but that change am I thinking of?" Rose asked.
"You're not thinking of it perhaps so much in the connection I refer to. If Mrs. Bream goes, your 'anchorage,' as you call it, goes."
"I see what you mean." She spoke with the softest assent; the tears had sprung into her eyes and she looked away to hide them.
"One may have the highest possible opinion of her husband and yet not quite see you staying on here in the same manner with him."
Rose was silent, with a certain dignity. "Not quite," she presently said with the same gentleness.
"The way therefore to provide against everything is—as I remarked to you a while ago—to
