7 . 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 . 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 . so the reputations of all three were safeguarded , and the convenience of all three met to a nicety . 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 . 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 . 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 . on this question Georgina and Forster may well have thought alike . she drummed it into the children , as did Dickens , that their father &apos;s name was their best asset , - which was true enough . it was virtually their only asset , and hers too . the welfare of the children - and her own - was dependent upon that good name . 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 . when the storm broke , Georgina seems to have felt no qualms over assisting actively in the sacrifice of her sister &apos;s happiness , or in consolidating her own usurpation of her sister &apos;s husband , home and children . in justice to her and in mitigation of her conduct , it should be said that according to Dickens &apos; emphatic testimony , for many years she had striven to keep husband and wife together , in face of Mrs Dickens &apos; expressed desires to leave her husband . but a wife &apos;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 &apos;s frequent declaration : I never will desert Mr Micawber . there is no reason to disbelieve Dickens &apos; 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 . the failure of her goodwill for her sister may have been a plant of gradual growth . 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 . 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 . it may that once that was secured she was willing , and even eager to see her go . 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 . that is precisely what happened . 8 . it is true that the eldest boy Charley was of an age to be flying off and building a nest of his own . both he and his father agreed that he should go to the new nest of his mother to take care of her . 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 . his health could not stand the climate , and he soon died in Calcutta . 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 . the fourth , Alfred , was sent off to Australia . 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 . 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 . 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 . except for Henry , the boys did little good . 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 &apos;s Cathedral that he might be considered as having done enough towards the increase of his country &apos;s population . his allusions to his wife &apos;s later pregnancies were only too often in questionable , not to say , downright bad , taste . 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 . their cost and charges , he declared , made his hair stand on end . exile of one after another soon relieved the pressure ; and at last Gad &apos;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 boots , according to the distracted author . this , too , in spite of the most stringent home discipline which the father personally enforced . Father and Aunty Georgy having proved equal to the boys , the two girls Mamie and Katey were less difficult . 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 . Kate , as we have seen , had more than a touch of her father &apos;s independence of spirit , and had a concealed distrust of her virtuous aunt . she felt for her mother and visited her in her affliction , though she was too much awed by her father to protest or fight . but uncomfortable under the new r&amp;eacute;gime , 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 . so triumphed the cuckoo in the nest . her nest at last ! thereafter , for Georgina Hogarth , undisputed mistress of the Dickens m&amp;eacute;nage , life was tranquil at Gad &apos;s Hill . Mamie relieved her of much domestic duty , and there was a staff of servants to do what was required . 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 . as to social invitations from Dickens , who remained as social and convivial as ever , these were , of course pre-eminently Georgina &apos;s administrative affair . in such matters , she acquitted herself to perfection always . as time went on , the scandal about her gradually died down . the decorum of the Gad &apos;s Hill household over the years played a great part in killing it . 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 . 9 . 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 . 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 . 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 . his welfare was her sole and constant preoccupation ; no wife or mother could have been more solicitous . 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 . 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 ? 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 . his visit was a tremendous success , and it was they who welcomed him back to Gad &apos;s Hill upon his return . 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 . but when Dickens was reading in Ireland he had taken Georgina and Mamie on the excursion with him . 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 . it was a horrid experience , and must have reminded Georgina of adventure in Italy long , long ago . then as Dickens &apos; 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 . realising his position , as his health obliged him to do , he made his will . in this remarkable document , his high opinion of , and his care for , Georgina are clearly revealed . he left his grateful blessings and more money to her than to anyone else , namely &amp;pound;8,000 free of legacy duty , as well as most of his personal jewellery , household trinkets , and private papers . she was made an executrix , her partner in carrying out the will being the indispensable Forster . his wife Catherine was left only the interest on &amp;pound;8,000 and could not touch the principal , whereas Georgina &apos;s legacy was an absolute one ; and instead of grateful blessings , there was implied reproach for the wife . as to Ellen Ternan , who as Dickens &apos; 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 &amp;pound;1,000 . in addition , Georgina was the subject of a whole-hearted panegyric in the will as the best and truest friend man ever had - which contrast 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 . further , he left Georgina to the care of his children in pontificatory words as follows : 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 . tribute could hardly be more emphatic . but if the debt to Georgina was so obvious , it would seem desirable to spare Georgina &apos;s blushes over her superiority to her sister , the children &apos;s mother . however , one or two of the children such as Mamie and Harry certainly heeded their father &apos;s injunction , but after his death there came a time when even Mamie failed in devotion to her Aunt Georgy . 