The earl, her grandson,
was abroad, and there were only his solicitors to interfere on his
behalf, men to whom Lady Mary's fortune was quite unimportant, although
it was against their principles to let anything slip out of their hands
that could aggrandize their client; but who knew nothing about the
circumstances,--about little Mary, about the old lady's peculiarities, in
any way. Therefore the persons who had surrounded her in her life, and
Mr. Furnival, her man of business, were the persons who really had the
management of everything. Their wives interfered a little too, or rather
the one wife who only could do so,--the wife of the vicar, who came in
beneficently at once, and took poor little Mary, in her first desolation,
out of the melancholy house. Mrs. Vicar did this without any hesitation,
knowing very well that, in all probability, Lady Mary had made no will,
and consequently that the poor girl was destitute. A great deal is said
about the hardness of the world, and the small consideration that is
shown for a destitute dependent in such circumstances. But this is not
true; and, as a matter of fact, there is never, or very rarely, such
profound need in the world, without a great deal of kindness and much
pity. The three gentlemen all along had been entirely in Mary's interest.
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