"Yes," said Beth; "but my mother would not let me know you. She and I are always--always--we never agree, you know. I don't think we can help it; we certainly don't do it on purpose--at least _I_ don't; but there's something in us that makes us jar about everything. I was going to tell her all about you on Sunday night; but when I got in I couldn't. She began by being angry because I was late, without waiting to know if I were to blame, and that--that shut me up, and I never told her; and now I don't think I could." "But what objection can she have to me?" he asked loftily. "I really must make her acquaintance." "Not through me, then," said Beth. "Do you know the Benyons?" "No, I don't know anybody in the neighbourhood as yet. I'm here with old Rich to be crammed. My people are trying to force me into the bar or the church or something, because I want to be a sculptor." "Don't be forced," said Beth with spirit. "Follow your own bent. I mean to follow mine." "I didn't know girls had any bent," he answered dubiously. There was a recoil in Beth. "How is it people never expect a girl to do anything?" she exclaimed, firing up. "I don't see what a girl can do," he rejoined, "except marry and look after her husband and children." "That's all right at the proper time," Beth said. "But meanwhile, and if she doesn't marry, is she to do nothing?" "Oh, there are always lots of little things a woman can do," he answered airily. "But supposing little things don't satisfy her, and she has power to follow some big pursuit?" "Oh, well, in that case," he began, somewhat superciliously. "But it's too rare to be taken into account--talent in women." "How do you know?" Beth said. "Robbing women of the means to develop their talents doesn't prove they haven't any. The best horseman in the world could never have ridden if he hadn't had a horse. I certainly think a woman should see to the ordering of her household; but if she has it in her to do more why shouldn't she? _I_ shall want to do more, I know. I shall want to be something; and I shall never believe that I cannot be that something until I have tried the experiment. If you have it in you to be a sculptor, be a sculptor. _I_ certainly should, girl and all as I am. I couldn't help it." "You're very valiant!" he said drily; "but you don't know what it is to have your whole family against you." "Don't I?" said Beth, laughing. "I've known that all my life; but I've known something besides. I've known what it is to be myself. If you know yourself, and yourself is a sculptor, you're bound to be a sculptor in spite of your family." He looked at her admiringly. "When you talk like that, I feel I could be anything or do anything that you like, I love you so," he ventured, flipping the grass with his stick to cover his boyish embarrassment. "I am thinking of you always, all day long." "Isn't it strange!" Beth answered softly. "And only two days ago we had never met!"