"I have been wondering for a long time when all this was to come to an end--your `docility and humility,' your `sweet bright gentleness,' as your friend Captain Clare calls it. Oh, yes, I have been expecting it. It is all very well within reasonable limits, obedience and submission, and all that; but Edgar has not a particle of authority over us, and you can wind Colonel Bentham round your finger, as you used to do with Mr St. Cyr. It is just as well to make a stand about Selina as anything. It must have come some time, and now we shall have the pleasant old days back again." And so on. Yes, she grew very unhappy as she listened. Were the old times coming back again?--the times when she did not know where to turn to find a friend when anxiety for her little brothers and Tessie made her heart-sick. Obedience! submission! She had not been conscious of any such thing all this time. She had felt so safe, so comforted, so at home with her brother and sister. They had no authority certainly. But would it be a wise or happy thing to take even the smallest of these affairs out of their hands into her own? If only Edgar would be reasonable about Selina! No, she could not part from her. She could bear it for herself; but what could Selina do without her? "I cannot, cannot let her go." Tessie's voice startled her again. She was laughing merrily. "I declare, Fred, I could quite have fancied myself at home again. I had forgotten how _grand_ you could be;" and she threw back her head with an air, and marched to the door as her sister had done. "You quite frightened Cecilia, I could see. As for Edgar, I think he was laughing a little. He cannot be harder to overcome than Madame Ascot. This `turning the other cheek' is all very well to talk about; but Edgar has no real authority over us, and if you are firm now, Fred, we shall have it all our own way." Did she want to have it all her own way? Had Edgar no authority over them? Would her father have said that? And without him what was to be done with the brothers or with Tessie, should she grow wilful, as she used to be? And as to "the other cheek"! Had Edgar smitten her on the one cheek? Was she right in resenting what he had planned and what he had said to her? And now here was Tessie laughing and delighted at her anger and her pride. Poor Fred! The very foundations seemed to be removing. The tears she had kept back with such difficulty flowed freely; but all this time she had never uttered a word. "I thought it was all over and at an end, my foolish anger and pride and disobedience, and now, at the very first word of opposition, I am as bad as ever. Oh! if it were anything else, I would give up, and not mind! Hush, Tessie," she said aloud, "you do not understand. No, you are not to speak to Selina. I must think about it first. Edgar never was unkind before. Perhaps to-morrow he may change his plans."