"You know what you did, father. You sent away the man I loved. I love him with all my heart and soul and strength. You sent him away. Then you and Lady Helen spoke to me; you said I was to give him up. I don't--I mean that kind of thing would never make me give him up, never! I could not live in the house with Lady Helen. She wanted me to marry Lord Hawtrey; father, I will never marry him--he knows it. You, father, you and Lady Helen, did your utmost to break my heart, but my heart is my own as my life is my own. I could no longer stay with you. Father, I have chosen; I have come back to the poor life, to the humble life, to the little life at Cherton, to Aunt Penelope's house and to Aunt Penelope's home once more. I don't want grandeur, I don't want what Lady Helen calls a high position--I should hate it, I should loathe it; it would be torture to me. Father, I won't have it!" He was quite silent, but, just as I had done that morning, he began to pull up pieces of purple heather and to scatter the little bells on the grass by his side. His eyes were lowered. "I hate the world!" I said. After a long pause, he spoke. "Bless you, Heather." "Father!" "For saying those words," he continued. "Oh, father, I knew you agreed with me in your heart of hearts." "I do, but I am tied and bound--yes, child, tied and bound. I can't escape; I can never escape; never, never!" "Father, I am coming to your part of all this in a few minutes, but first I want to speak about myself. Do you dislike the man I love? You don't know him; I do. I have seen him often at the Carringtons. He is strong, and brave and upright; he is not rich, but neither is he poor; he could marry me without taking any fortune with me; he could marry me, yes, me, just as I stand, and we should be happy--happy as the day is long. Father, I won't have that old man, and, what is more, I know that he won't have me. I will tell you what I did yesterday. You and Lady Helen between you broke my heart--oh, I had an awful time! I don't blame you much, but I must--I must say that I blame you a little. I sat in my room until you went out, and then I determined that whatever happened I would live my own life, that I would not be tied and bound to that awful, dreadful stepmother of mine. I saw that she was ruining you, that she was destroying your happiness, that she was making your life a hell to you, and I vowed that she should not destroy mine. I wondered who could help me, I wondered and wondered, and at last a bold thought occurred to me, and I determined to go into the lion's den." "Child, what do you mean?" I put my hand on his; his hand was fat and flabby, not the firm, brown, muscular hand that I used to remember. "I went to Lord Hawtrey," I said very quickly. He snatched his hand away, stood upright, and looked at me. "What! you went to Hawtrey--to his house?"