She went with him
on his long journeys, and so had been several times to America, once to
the Cape, and one long voyage, with Australia as the objective point, had
taken her completely round the world. She inherited much of her father's
shrewdness, and there is no doubt that, if Edith Longworth had been cast
upon her own resources, she would have become an excellent woman of
business. She knew exactly the extent of her father's investments, and
she was his confidante in a way that few women are with their male
relatives. The old man had a great faith in Edith's opinion, although he
rarely acknowledged it. Having been together so much on such long trips,
they naturally became, in a way, boon companions. Thus, Edith's education
was very unlike that of the ordinary English girl, and this particular
training caused her to develop into a different kind of woman than she
might have been had her mother lived.
Perfect confidence existed between father and daughter, and only lately
had there come a shadow upon their relations, about which neither ever
spoke to the other since their first conversation on the subject.
Edith had said, with perhaps more than her usual outspokenness, that she
had no thought whatever of marriage, and least of all had her thoughts
turned toward the man her father seemed to have chosen. In answer to
this, her father had said nothing, but Edith knew him too well to believe
that he had changed his mind about the matter.
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