"Take them, dear," she said. "We ought to pay you for three months' extra work, but I have no money. You know that, Ducie. Take these instead. Keep them for my sake, dear. Oh Ducie, Ducie! you are my only friend here, and they are sending you away. My God, my dear God, have pity on me!" She spoke rapidly in a transport of sorrowful feeling; she forced the trinkets into Ducie's hand, and walking with her to the door, kissed her there; then sobbing like a little child, she fell upon the sofa in hopeless distress. "What folly!" cried Robert. "Who would believe all this fuss was about a common servant girl--a disobedient, insolent servant girl. Why did she not obey my mother's order?" Then Theodora rose to her feet. She put tears away, and answered proudly: "Because I was her mistress, and I told her to come with me." "You told her to disobey my mother?" "Yes. Your mother dismissed her without my permission. Suppose I had called your mother's chambermaid, and ordered her to leave the house--the cases are precisely the same." "Not at all; mother is mistress and housekeeper. When she ordered Ducie to leave, that was quite sufficient." "Do you expect me to obey your mother's orders?" "I obey her orders." "If they were kind and just orders, I would do all I could to meet them; when they are unjust and tyrannical, I will not obey them. I will be a partner in none of her sins and cruelties; I know a better way, if she does not. And I must have a maid, Robert." "I will tell mother to hire one for you. But we shall have no more English girls, so do not expect what you will not get." "Would any English girl want to come to Glasgow, for the sake of Glasgow? That is a difficult thing to imagine." "And I do not approve of you giving valuable jewelry away." "It was my very own. I had it long before I saw you." "It was scandalous of Ducie to accept it. She ought not to be allowed to carry it away. You were not responsible when you gave it." "And if it is scandalous for Ducie, my friend, to take a gift of my jewelry from my hands, what about the Campbelton women, who broke open my trunk, and took out of its case my class ring of diamonds and sapphires, worth eighty pounds; a ring my class paid for, and gave me. You promised me it should be returned. It never has been. Do you pretend that ring was yours? And is everything I possess yours? And do you permit your kindred to help themselves to whatever of mine they choose to appropriate?" "You possess nothing--the hair on your head is mine. I can sell it if I choose. Your wedding ring is mine." "I believe nothing of the kind. It is incredible." "It is the law of England." "You ought to have told me those things before I was married. I was beguiled into slavery. Why are girls in school not taught such things, if, indeed, they are true?" "It is the law of England. Any lawyer will tell you so."