"Or let me tell you something." "What do you want to tell me, Frances?" In saying this he assumed his most angry tone and sternest countenance,--which, however, were not very angry or very stern, and had no effect in frightening his daughter. He did not, in truth, wish to say a word about the Post Office clerk before he made his escape, and would have been very glad to frighten her enough to make her silent had that been possible. "Papa, I want you to know that it will do no good shutting me up there." "Nobody shuts you up." "I mean here in Saxony. Of course I shall stay for some time, but you cannot expect that I shall remain here always." "Who has talked about always?" "I understand that I am brought here to be--out of Mr. Roden's way." "I would rather not speak of that young man." "But, papa,--if he is to be my husband--" "He is not to be your husband." "It will be so, papa, though I should be kept here ever so long. That is what I want you to understand. Having given my word,--and so much more than my word,--I certainly shall not go back from it. I can understand that you should carry me off here so as to try and wean me from it--" "It is quite out of the question; impossible!" "No, papa. If he choose,--and I choose,--no one can prevent us." As she said this she looked him full in the face. "Do you mean to say that you owe no obedience to your parents?" "To you, papa, of course I owe obedience,--to a certain extent. There does come a time, I suppose, in which a daughter may use her own judgment as to her own happiness." "And disgrace all her family?" "I do not think that I shall disgrace mine. What I want you to understand, papa, is this,--that you will not ensure my obedience by keeping me here. I think I should be more likely to be submissive at home. There is an idea in enforced control which is hardly compatible with obedience. I don't suppose you will lock me up." "You have no right to talk to me in that way." "I want to explain that our being here can do no good. When you are gone mamma and I will only be very unhappy together. She won't talk to me, and will look at me as though I were a poor lost creature. I don't think that I am a lost creature at all, but I shall be just as much lost here as though I were at home in England." "When you come to talking you are as bad as your brother," said the Marquis as he left her. Only that the expression was considered to be unfit for female ears, he would have accused her of "talking the hind legs off a dog." When he was gone the life at Königsgraaf became very sombre indeed. Mr. George Roden's name was never mentioned by either of the ladies. There was the Post Office, no doubt, and the Post Office was at first left open to her; but there soon came a time in which she was deprived of this consolation. With such a guardian as the Marchioness, it was not likely that free correspondence should be left open to her. CHAPTER V. MRS. RODEN.