'And he said, I grant thee thy boon, gentle Joan! Take one of my horses straightway.' 'Well, though the book is lost, we retain the moral, you see,' said Rachel with a little laugh; 'and it has always seemed to me that if it had not been necessary to say, "my honey, my love, and my dear," that good soul would not have said it, and you may be pretty sure that if she had not, and with the suitable by-play too, she might not have ridden to Gamwell that day.' 'And you don't think _you_ could have persuaded yourself to repeat that little charm, which obtained her boon and one of his horses straightway?' said Lord Chelford. 'Well, I don't know what a great temptation and a contumacious husband might bring one to; but I'm afraid I'm a stubborn creature, and have not the feminine gift of flattery. If, indeed, he felt his inferiority and owned his dependence, I think I might, perhaps, have called him "my honey, my love, and my dear," and encouraged and comforted him; but to buy my personal liberty, and the right to visit my brother at Gamwell--never!' And yet she looked, Lord Chelford thought, very goodhumoured and pleasant, and he fancied a smile from her might do more with some men than all gentle Joan's honeyed vocabulary. 'I own,' said Lord Chelford, laughing, 'that, from prejudice, I suppose, I am in favour of the apostolic method, and stand up for the divine right of my sex; but then, don't you see, it is your own fault, if you make it a question of right, when you may make it altogether one of fascination?' 'Who, pray, is disputing the husband's right to rule?' demanded old Lady Chelford unexpectedly. 'I am very timidly defending it against very serious odds,' answered her son. 'Tut, tut! my dears, what's all this; you _must_ obey your husbands,' cried the dowager, who put down nonsense with a high hand, and had ruled her lord with a rod of iron. 'That's no tradition of the Brandons,' said Miss Dorcas, quietly. 'The Brandons--pooh! my dear--it is time the Brandons should grow like other people. Hitherto, the Brandon men have all, without exception, been the wickedest in all England, and the women the handsomest and the most self-willed. Of course the men could not be obeyed in all things, nor the women disobeyed. I'm a Brandon myself, Dorcas, so I've a right to speak. But the words are precise--honour and obey--and obey you _must_; though, of course you may argue a point, if need be, and let your husband hear reason.' And, having ruled the point, old Lady Chelford leaned back and resumed her doze. There was no longer anything playful in Dorcas's look. On the contrary, something fierce and lurid, which I thought wonderfully becoming; and after a little she said-- 'I promised, Rachel, to show you my jewels. Come now--will you?--and see them.' And she placed Rachel's hand on her arm, and the two young ladies departed. 'Are you well, dear?' asked Rachel when they reached her room.