he owes it to Miss Farnham's mother. So much I think I might claim;
it is really very little considering what it stands for. Cecily is
permanently with us--I believe she considers herself an intimate. I
am very reasonable about lending her to her aunts, but she takes no
sort of advantage of my liberality; she says she knows her duty is
at home. She is growing into a firm and solid English maiden lady,
with a good colour and great decision of character. That she always
had.

I point out to John, when she takes our crumpets away from us, that
she gets it from him. I could never take away anybody's crumpets,
merely because they were indigestible, least of all my own parents'.
She has acquired a distinct affection for us, by some means best
known to herself; but I should have no objection to that if she
would not rearrange my bonnet-strings. That is a fond liberty to
which I take exception; but it is one thing to take exception and
another to express it.

Our daughter is with us, permanently with us. She declares that she
intends to be the prop of our declining years; she makes the
statement often, and always as if it were humorous. Nevertheless I
sometimes notice a spirit of inquiry, a note of investigation in her
encounters with the opposite sex that suggests an expectation not
yet extinct that another and perhaps a more appreciative Dacres
Tottenham may flash across her field of vision--alas, how
improbable! Myself I can not imagine why she should wish it; I have
grown in my old age into a perfect horror of cultivated young men;
but if such a person should by a miracle at any time appear, I think
it is extremely improbable that I will interfere on his behalf.