7 .sx What actually developed was so much in the interests of all the three that we may be pretty certain that it was contrived , rather than that it developed naturally out of the situation .sx Catherine having been cast out , Georgina reigned in her stead undisputed queen of the home , the children , and all official social affairs , as though indeed she were the official wife , while Ellen held any emotional sway over Charles himself , in the background .sx So the reputations of all three were safeguarded , and the convenience of all three met to a nicety .sx Georgina was quite clever enough to appreciate the difficulties of Charles , herself and Ellen , and to solve them in the way this clever arrangement smoothed them out for all parties .sx Forster , too , that prudent man of the world and of business , while deploring the situation that had arisen , might discreetly advise on the same lines .sx For the continued success of Dickens as a household saint writing virtuous books , divorce and re-marriage was out of the question ; besides , Georgina would not connive at her own deposition , while Ellen might well recoil from becoming stepmother to girls of her own age and a gang of young boys .sx On this question Georgina and Forster may well have thought alike .sx She drummed it into the children , as did Dickens , that " their father's name was their best " ,- which was true enough .sx It was virtually their only asset , and hers too .sx The welfare of the children- and her own- was dependent upon that good name .sx And to write his best both Forster and Georgina knew that Dickens needed a quiet mind ; freedom from care and worry ; an efficiently-functioning household ; emotional and aesthetic satisfactions and companionships- all that poor Catherine , in her miserable inadequacy , had failed in providing .sx When the storm broke , Georgina seems to have felt no qualms over assisting actively in the sacrifice of her sister's happiness , or in consolidating her own usurpation of her sister's husband , home and children .sx In justice to her and in mitigation of her conduct , it should be said that according to Dickens' emphatic testimony , for many years she had striven to keep husband and wife together , in face of Mrs. Dickens' expressed desires to leave her husband .sx But a wife's expressed intention to desert her husband when jealous or annoyed is common form , and is seldom taken too seriously , being regarded by most husbands as meaning Mrs. Micawber's frequent declaration :sx " I never will desert Mr. Micawber .sx " There is no reason to disbelieve Dickens' story of Georgina as a mediator in the past ; there may have been cogent reasons for her doing her best to prevent a rupture in previous years .sx The failure of her goodwill for her sister may have been a plant of gradual growth .sx For a long time she may have believed , as Dickens did , that the fight ( as he unhappily called it ) could only go on to the end of one or other of the contestants , being released by death from the marital torments of an irksome yoke .sx It may be that she needed time to consolidate her own position both with Dickens and in the household generally , that until her own place was established as supreme and unassailable she did not want poor Kate to leave .sx It may [SIC] that once that was secured she was willing , and even eager to see her go .sx The cuckoo in the nest once firmly settled , and she having ejected the mother-bird , one by one the baby-birds must be pushed out , too .sx That is precisely what happened .sx 8 .sx It is true that the eldest boy Charley was of an age to be flying off and building a nest of his own .sx Both he and his father agreed that he should go to the new nest of his mother to take care of her .sx But there is less excuse for hustling out the second boy , Walter , who at the age of sixteen , became a cadet in India , in the service of the East India Company .sx His health could not stand the climate , and he soon died in Calcutta .sx The third son , Frank , after failing in attempts to be a doctor , a farmer , a business-man , a lawyer and a journalist , left the country for the Bengal police .sx The fourth , Alfred , was sent off to Australia .sx The fifth boy , Sydney , left for the Navy and died after entering upon unsatisfactory courses which Georgina said would bring him to certain misery in this world , quite apart from what might be expected to happen to him hereafter- on which question his affectionate aunt did not commit herself .sx The sixth son , Henry , resisted all attempts to dislodge him , and managed to maintain his position in the nest by winning scholarships at Cambridge and keeping a steady inclination to seek call to the Bar .sx But the youngest boy Edward , known to the family as " Plorn , " was also exiled in Australia like Alfred , though there was especial weeping and gnashing of teeth over his emigration .sx Except for Henry , the boys did little good .sx Dickens had openly regretted the births of his later children , saying- as we have seen- that they were compliments from their mother that he could well have dispensed with , and even humorously suggesting a special service of intercession at St. Paul's Cathedral that he might be considered as having done enough towards the increase of his country's population .sx His allusions to his wife's later pregnancies were only too often in questionable , not to say , downright bad , taste .sx Fond as he was of very young children , the boys , as they became older , were in his eyes decided encumbrances , and we can be pretty certain that Georgina thought so too .sx Their cost and charges , he declared , made his hair stand on end .sx Exile of one after another soon relieved the pressure ; and at last Gad's Hill was no longer " pervaded by boys , every boy having an unaccountable and awful power of producing himself in every part of the house at every moment , apparently in fourteen pairs of creaking " , according to the distracted author .sx This , too , in spite of the most stringent home discipline which the father personally enforced .sx Father and Aunty Georgy having proved equal to the boys , the two girls Mamie and Katey were less difficult .sx Mamie was more tractable than her mother had been both to her father and her aunt ; she cleaved to them and deserted her mother from the first .sx Kate , as we have seen , had more than a touch of her father's independence of spirit , and had a concealed distrust of her virtuous aunt .sx She felt for her mother and visited her in her affliction , though she was too much awed by her father to protest or fight .sx But uncomfortable under the new re@2gime , she left home as soon as she could , though it involved making a loveless marriage with a young consumptive bridegroom , her first husband Charles Alston Collins , the brother of Wilkie .sx So triumphed the cuckoo in the nest .sx Her nest at last !sx Thereafter , for Georgina Hogarth , undisputed mistress of the Dickens me@2nage , life was tranquil at Gad's Hill .sx Mamie relieved her of much domestic duty , and there was a staff of servants to do what was required .sx Social invitations to Dickens now almost always included Georgina- Dickens saw to that- and she went about with him a good deal , and since Mamie was fond of parties , she too , was sometimes included .sx As to social invitations from Dickens , who remained as social and convivial as ever , these were , of course pre-eminently Georgina's administrative affair .sx In such matters , she acquitted herself to perfection always .sx As time went on , the scandal about her gradually died down .sx The decorum of the Gad's Hill household over the years played a great part in killing it .sx But that it was not forgotten is shown by the fact that although Queen Victoria received both Dickens and Mamie at Court , there was never any Court invitation for Georgina .sx 9 .sx When Dickens , ageing beyond his years , worn by incessant toils , anxieties and the financial burdens of helping relatives and friends , and in declining health , rushed about the country and even went to America again to give " readings " from his books to large and wildly enraptured audiences to the vast enrichment of his banking-account , Georgina stayed at home and received vivid letters recounting his adventures and triumphs .sx Catherine gone , and most of her children also , she was able to live quietly and comfortably while keeping a steadying influence upon the great man who was everything to her in life .sx As the years rolled by , her influence over her brother-in-law strengthened still more , as indeed one might expect , knowing the force of habit .sx His welfare was her sole and constant preoccupation ; no wife or mother could have been more solicitous .sx When he was absent from home , every fluctuation in his health was faithfully recounted to her , and Georgina and the children were ever upon his pen as once Kate and the children had been .sx And his " pair of petticoats " for public inspection , though there might be another petticoat in the emotional background , were now Georgina and Mamie- and what could be more outwardly respectable ?sx It was they who went to the great farewell dinner held in London when , in 1867 , he was invited to visit America for the second time .sx His visit was a tremendous success , and it was they who welcomed him back to Gad's Hill upon his return .sx Georgina was not in the company of Dickens when he met with his first railway accident at Staplehurst , as were Ellen Ternan and her mother .sx But when Dickens was reading in Ireland he had taken Georgina and Mamie on the excursion with him .sx When the return train from Belfast met with an accident , they were all three in it , and flung themselves on the floor of their carriage to avoid injury .sx It was a horrid experience , and must have reminded Georgina of adventure in Italy long , long ago .sx Then as Dickens' health worsened owing to his long-continued exertions and the strain of giving public readings , and it became clear that he might be on the verge of a stroke , his doctors insisted on his giving up these exhausting public appearances .sx Realising his position , as his health obliged him to do , he made his will .sx In this remarkable document , his high opinion of , and his care for , Georgina are clearly revealed .sx He left his " grateful blessings " and more money to her than to anyone else , namely +8,000 free of legacy duty , as well as most of his personal jewellery , household trinkets , and private papers .sx She was made an executrix , her partner in carrying out the will being the indispensable Forster .sx His wife Catherine was left only the interest on +8,000 and could not touch the principal , whereas Georgina's legacy was an absolute one ; and instead of grateful blessings , there was implied reproach for the wife .sx As to Ellen Ternan , who as Dickens' supposed mistress might perhaps have been expected to have done better for herself than Georgina , she , though named first in the will , was left merely +1,000 .sx In addition , Georgina was the subject of a whole-hearted panegyric in the will as " the best and truest friend man ever " - which contrast [SIC] sharply with silence about Ellen ( which however upon any theory is understandable ) and cold complaint as to the past expensiveness of his wife Catherine and their children .sx Further , he left Georgina to the care of his children in pontificatory words as follows :sx " I solemnly enjoin my dear children always to remember how much they owe to the said Georgina Hogarth , and never to be wanting in a grateful and affectionate attachment to her , for they know well that she has been , through all the stages of their growth and progress their ever useful , self-denying and devoted friend .sx " Tribute could hardly be more emphatic .sx But if the debt to Georgina was so obvious , it would seem desirable to spare Georgina's blushes over her superiority to her sister , the children's mother .sx However , one or two of the children such as Mamie and Harry certainly heeded their father's injunction , but after his death there came a time when even Mamie failed in devotion to her " Aunt " .sx