"I would not have the lass build too much on her father's present mood," said the old lady from Thornyhaugh, as we two sat together in the little south room the evening after Sir Julius had departed. "I should not speak so of my nevoy belike, but he aye minds me of what was said of King James the Sixth by ane wha keened him weel. 'Do you ken a jackanape?' said he. 'If you hold Jocko by the chain you can make him bite me, but if I hold him by the chain I can make him bite you.'" "That is just what I think, madam," said I. (As we were alone together I thought I might have the comfort of speaking my mind for once.) "I know Lady Throckmorton—Lady Leighton, I mean—a little, and from what I have seen of them both, I do not believe Sir Julius is likely to make any stand against her." "Aye, and what do you know of her, my lass?" In answer I gave her an account of our visit to Lady Throckmorton. "Just like her!" was the comment. "What's bred in the bone stays long in the blood. I keened her mother before her, and she was just such another. A fine guardian, truly, to set over his daughter. Aweel, Lucy Corbet, I am no Papist nor favorer of Papists, or of them that would bring them back on this land, but, saving their religion, I would wish you and my niece were safe back yonder in your convent. Poor children! This world is a hard place for motherless lassies." She stroked my head as I sat on a low seat to which she had called me beside her, and I kissed her beautiful withered hand, and felt comforted by her sympathy. "What I most fear, if I may venture to say so, madam—" I began, and then stopped. "Say what is in your mind, bairn," said the old lady, "I shall never repeat a word." "What I fear for Amabel then is, that Lady Throckmorton—I mean Lady Leighton—will try to marry her up to some of the men who are always hanging about her—to Lord Bulmer, for instance. Do you think, madam, that in that case Amabel would be bound to obey?" The old lady meditated for a moment before she spoke. "No, bairn, I would not say so. If my nephew forbids his daughter to marry this minister—what is his name?" "Mr. Cheriton." "Aye, Mr. Cheriton. If my nevoy forbids his daughter to marry this man, though there be naught against him, doubtless his daughter is bound to obey her father, at least till she is of age. Children are to obey their parents in the Lord. But no parent has the right to make his child perjure herself by promising to love and honor a man whom she hates and despises, or to promise to love one man while her heart is another's. That such matches have sometimes turned out well to appearance is but saying that sin is sometimes overruled for good. Nay, I am as earnest as any one for obedience to parents, but if a father bids his child to bow down before an idol, she is not bound to obey." We both started as Amabel came forward to the fire and spoke, for we had not heard her enter.