"But do you not distrust her if you shut her up, and are afraid to allow her even to sit at table in a strange house?" "I have never forbidden her to sit at thy table," said the Quaker. "And you should let her go specially as a kindness to me. For my son's sake I have promised to be there, and it would be a comfort to me to have another woman with me." "Then you will hardly need me," said Mr. Fay, not without a touch of jealousy. "He specially pressed his request that you would come. It is among such as you that he would wish to make himself known. Moreover, if Marion is to be there, you, I am sure, will choose to accompany her. Would you not wish to see how the child bears herself on such an occasion?" "On all occasions, at all places, at all hours, I would wish to have my child with me. There is nothing else left to me in all the world on which my eye can rest with pleasure. But I doubt whether it may be for her good." Then he took his departure, leaving the matter still undecided, speaking of it with words which seemed to imply that he must ultimately refuse, but impressing Mrs. Roden with a conviction that he would at last accept the invitation. "Doest thou wish it thyself?" he said to his daughter before retiring to rest that night. "If you will go, father, I should like it." "Why shouldst thou like it? What doest thou expect? Is it because the young man is a lord, and that there will be something of the gilded grandeur of the grand ones of the earth to be seen about his house and his table?" "It is not for that, father." "Or is it because he is young and comely, and can say soft things as such youths are wont to say, because he will smell sweetly of scents and lavender, because his hand will be soft to the touch, with rings on his fingers, and jewels perhaps on his bosom like a woman?" "No, father; it is not for that." "The delicacies which he will give thee to eat and to drink; the sweetmeats and rich food cannot be much to one nurtured as thou hast been." "Certainly not, father; they can be nothing to me. "Then why is it that thou wouldst go to his house?" "It is that I may hear you, father, speak among men." "Nay," said he, laughing, "thou mayst hear me better speak among men at King's Court in the City. There I can hold my own well enough, but with these young men over their wine, I shall have but little to say, I fancy. If thou hast nothing to gain but to hear thy old father talk, the time and money will be surely thrown away." "I would hear him talk, father." "The young lord?" "Yes; the young lord. He is bright and clever, and, coming from another world than our world, can tell me things that I do not know." "Can he tell thee aught that is good?" "From what I hear of him from our friend he will tell me, I think, naught that is bad. You will be there to hear, and to arrest his words if they be evil. But I think him to be one from whose mouth no guile or folly will be heard."