"You need not. You can best answer that question yourself." "Then we understand each other." "We do not, Mr. Redmain; and, if this occurs again, I shall go to Durnmelling." She spoke with a vague idea that he also stood in some awe of the father and mother whose dread, however well she hid it, she would never, while she lived, succeed in shaking off. But to the husband it was a rare delight to speak with conscious rectitude in the moral chastisement of his wife. He burst into a loud and almost merry laugh. "Happy they will be to see you there, madam! Why, you goose, if I send a telegram before you, they won't so much as open the door to you! They know better which side their bread is buttered." Hesper started up in a rage. This was too much--and the more too much, that she believed it would be as he said. "Mr. Redmain, if you do not leave the room, I will." "Oh, don't!" he cried, in a tone of pretended alarm. His pleasure was great, for he had succeeded in stinging the impenetrable. "You really ought to consider before you utter such an awful threat! I will go myself a thousand times rather!--But will you not feel the want of pocket-money when you come to pay a rough cabman? The check I gave you yesterday will not last you long." "The money is my own, Mr. Redmain." "But you have not yet opened a banking-account in your own name." "I suppose you have a meaning, Mr. Redmain; but I am not in the habit of using cabs." "Then you had better get into the habit; for I swear to you, madam, if you don't fetch that girl home within the week, I will, next Monday, discharge your coachman, and send every horse in the stable to Tattersall's! Good morning." She had no doubt he would do as he said; she knew Mr. Redmain would just enjoy selling her horses. But she could not at once give in. I say "_could_ not," because hers was the weak will that can hardly bring itself to do what it knows it must, and is continually mistaken for the strong will that defies and endures. She had a week to think about it, and she would see! During the interval, he took care not once to refer to his threat, for that would but weaken the impression of it, he knew. On the Sunday, after service, she knocked at his door, and, being admitted, bade him good morning, but with no very gracious air--as, indeed, he would have been the last to expect. "We have had a sermon on the forgiveness of injuries, Mr. Redmain," she said. "By Jove!" interrupted her husband, "it would have been more to the purpose if I, or poor Mary Marston, had had it; for I swear you put our souls in peril!" "The ring was no common one, Mr. Redmain; and the young woman had, by leaving the house, placed herself in a false position: every one suspected her as much as I did. Besides, she lost her temper, and talked about forgiving _me_, when I was in despair about my ring!" "And what, pray, was your foolish ring compared to the girl's character?"