You are so good! You always do just what you think people will like best. Nothing could please me so much as seeing your sister, of whom of course I have heard very very much. There shall be nobody here but Miss Cass. Yours most sincerely, M. G. "How I do wish I were a man!" his sister said to him when they were in the hansom together. "You'd have a great deal more trouble." "But I'd have a hansom of my own, and go where I pleased. How would you like to be shut up at a place like The Horns?" "You can go out if you like it." "Not like you. Papa thinks it's the proper place for me to live in, and so I must live there. I don't think a woman ever chooses how or where she shall live herself." "You are not going to take up woman's rights, I hope." "I think I shall if I stay at The Horns much longer. What would papa say if he heard that I was going to give a lecture at an Institute?" "The governor has had so many things to bear that a trifle such as that would make but little difference." "Poor papa!" "He was dreadfully cut up about Gerald. And then he is so good! He said more to me about Gerald than he ever did about my own little misfortune at Oxford; but to Gerald himself he said almost nothing. Now he has forgiven me because he thinks I am constant at the House." "And are you?" "Not so much as he thinks. I do go there,--for his sake. He has been so good about my changing sides." "I think you were quite right there." "I am beginning to think I was quite wrong. What did it matter to me?" "I suppose it did make papa unhappy." "Of course it did;--and then this affair of yours." As soon as this was said Lady Mary at once hardened her heart against her father. Whether Silverbridge was or was not entitled to his own political opinions,--seeing that the Pallisers had for ages been known as staunch Whigs and Liberals,--might be a matter for question. But that she had a right to her own lover she thought that there could be no question. As they were sitting in the cab he could hardly see her face, but he was aware that she was in some fashion arming herself against opposition. "I am sure that this makes him very unhappy," continued Silverbridge. "It cannot be altered," she said. "It will have to be altered." "Nothing can alter it. He might die, indeed;--or so might I." "Or he might see that it is no good,--and change his mind," suggested Silverbridge. "Of course that is possible," said Lady Mary very curtly,--showing plainly by her manner that the subject was one which she did not choose to discuss any further. "It is very good of you to come to me," said Lady Mabel, kissing her new acquaintance. "I have heard so much about you." "And I also of you." "I, you know, am one of your brother's stern Mentors. There are three or four of us determined to make him a pattern young legislator. Miss Cassewary is another. Only she is not quite so stern as I am." "He ought to be very much obliged."