It is then he insists on setting up a separate
establishment; when this has been once agreed to, the more complete the
separation for ever after the better for both." Then he said more
seriously: "I want to put the children where they will be well and happy,
and where they will not be betrayed into the misery of false
expectations."
In the end he remembered that on his Sunday walks he had more than once
seen a couple who lived on the waterside a few miles below Gravesend,
just where the sea was beginning, and who he thought would do. They had
a family of their own fast coming on and the children seemed to thrive;
both father and mother indeed were comfortable well grown folks, in whose
hands young people would be likely to have as fair a chance of coming to
a good development as in those of any whom he knew.
We went down to see this couple, and as I thought no less well of them
than Ernest did, we offered them a pound a week to take the children and
bring them up as though they were their own. They jumped at the offer,
and in another day or two we brought the children down and left them,
feeling that we had done as well as we could by them, at any rate for the
present.
Pages:
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599