“I think you are trying how disagreeable you can be, Charlotte.”

“I am asking you honest questions in honest words.”

“I have the money from the sale of my commission.”

“It does not then strike you as dishonorable to keep it?”

“No, father gave me it.”

“It appears to me, that if money was taken from the estate, let us say to stock a sheep-walk, and it was decided after three years’ trial to give up the enterprise, and sell the sheep, that the money would naturally go back to the estate.  When you came of age, father made you a very generous allowance.  After a time you preferred that he should invest a large sum in a military commission for you; and you proposed to live upon your pay,—­a thing you never have even tried to do.  Suddenly, you find that the commission will not suit your more recent plans, and you sell it.  Ought not the money to go back to the estate, and you to make a fresh arrangement with father about your allowance?  That is my idea.”

“Foolishness!  And pray what allowance would my father make me, after the marriage I have contracted?”

“Now, you show your secret heart, Harry.  You know you have no right to expect one, and so you keep what is not yours.  This sin also for the woman whom you have put before every sentiment of love and honor.”

“You were stubborn enough about Steve Latrigg.”

“I was honorable; I was considerate for father, and did not put Stephen before him.  Do you think I would ever marry Stephen against father’s wish, or to the injury or suffering of any one whom I love?  Certainly I would marry no one else, but I gave father my word that I would wait for his sanction.  When people do right, things come right for them.  But if father had stood out twenty years, Steve and I would have waited.  Ducie gave us the same advice.  ‘Wait, children,’ she said:  ’I have seen many a wilful match, and many a run-away match, but never one, never one that prospered.’”

“Charley, I expected you to stand by me.  I expected you to help me.”

“O Harry, Harry!  How can I help?  What can I do?  There is nothing left but to suffer.”

“There is this:  plead for me when I am away.  My wife is sick in Florence.  I must go to her at once.  The money I have from my commission is all I have.  I am going to invest it in a little house and vineyard.  I have found out that my real tastes are for a pastoral life.”

“Ah, if you could only have found that out for father!”

“Circumstances may change.”

“That is, your father may die.  I suppose you and your wife have talked over that probability.  Beatrice will be able to endure the climate then.”

“If I did not see that you were under very strong excitement, Charlotte, I should be much offended by what you say.  But you don’t mean to hurt me.  Do you imagine that I feel no sorrow in leaving father and my mother and you and the old home?  My heart is very sad to-night, Charley.  I feel that I shall come here no more.”