Purling was so convinced
of her success as a leader of fashion that she would have asked for a
peerage in her own right, taking for arms three pills proper upon a
silver field, if she could have been certain that these honours would
not descend to her recreant son.
Whether or not, as time passed, she was absolutely happy, she did not
pause to inquire. The devotion of her newly-adopted children was so
unstinting, and they kept her so continually busy, that she had not
time for self-reproach. It was a disappointment to her that the
Jillinghams had no prospect of a family, and her chagrin would have
been increased had she known that already a boy and girl had been born
to the rightful heirs at Harbridge. But such news was carefully kept
from her; she was rigorously cut off from all communication with her
son. There was no safety otherwise against mischance; the strange
processes of the old creature's mind were inscrutable; she might in
one spasm of an awakened conscience undo all. For the Jillinghams were
still absolutely dependent upon her; she could turn them out of house
and home whenever she pleased. A small settlement was all the real
property Phillipa had secured. Although with right royal generosity
Mrs. Purling gave her favourites a liberal allowance, and promised
them everything when she was gone, yet was she like a crustacean in
the tenacity of her grip upon her own.
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