"I only had one, papa." "That made two. But there should have been no letter at all. Do you think it proper that a young lady should correspond with,--with,--a gentleman in opposition to the wishes of her father and mother?" "I don't know, papa." This seemed to him so weak that the Marquis took heart of grace, and made the oration which he felt that he as a father was bound to utter upon the entire question. For, after all, it was not the letters which were of importance, but the resolute feeling which had given birth to the letters. "My dear, this is a most unfortunate affair." He paused for a reply; but Lady Frances felt that the assertion was one to which at the present moment she could make no reply. "It is, you know, quite out of the question that you should marry a young man so altogether unfitted for you in point of station as this young man." "But I shall, papa." "Fanny, you can do no such thing." "I certainly shall. It may be a very long time first; but I certainly shall,--unless I die." "It is wicked of you, my dear, to talk of dying in that way." "What I mean is, that however long I may live I shall consider myself engaged to Mr. Roden." "He has behaved very, very badly. He has made his way into my house under a false pretence." "He came as Hampstead's friend." "It was very foolish of Hampstead to bring him,--very foolish,--a Post Office clerk." "Mr. Vivian is a clerk in the Foreign Office. Why shouldn't one office be the same as another?" "They are very different;--but Mr. Vivian wouldn't think of such a thing. He understands the nature of things, and knows his own position. There is a conceit about the other man." "A man should be conceited, papa. Nobody will think well of him unless he thinks well of himself." "He came to me in Park Lane." "What! Mr. Roden?" "Yes; he came. But I didn't see him. Mr. Greenwood saw him." "What could Mr. Greenwood say to him?" "Mr. Greenwood could tell him to leave the house,--and he did so. There was nothing more to tell him. Now, my dear, let there be no more about it. If you will put on your hat, we will go out and walk down to the village." To this Lady Frances gave a ready assent. She was not at all disposed to quarrel with her father, or to take in bad part what he had said about her lover. She had not expected that things would go very easily. She had promised to herself constancy and final success; but she had not expected that in her case the course of true love could be made to run smooth. She was quite willing to return to a condition of good humour with her father, and,--not exactly to drop her lover for the moment,--but so to conduct herself as though he were not paramount in her thoughts. The cruelty of her stepmother had so weighed upon her that she found it to be quite a luxury to be allowed to walk with her father.