Her words had been few; her young mind had been firmly made up in the train coming south.  No one should ever know that there had been any deviation from the original plan she had laid out for herself.  With a force of will marvellous in one of her tender years, she had controlled her extreme emotion, and except that she looked very pale and seemed very determined and quiet, there were no traces of the furnace through which she had passed, in which had perished all her old conceptions of existence, although as yet she realized nothing but that she wanted to go away and to be free and forget her tremors, and presently join Moravia.

The marriage had been perfectly legal, as the certificate showed, and Mr. Parsons, whatever his personal feelings about the matter were, knew that he had not the smallest control over her—­and was bound to hand over to her her money to do with as she pleased.

She merely told him the facts—­that the marriage had been only an arrangement to this end—­Mr. Arranstoun having agreed before the ceremony that this should be so—­and that she wanted to engage a good maid and go over to Paris as soon as possible, to see her friend the Princess Torniloni.

She had decided in the train that her methods with all who opposed her must be as they used to be with Sister Jeanne—­a statement of her intentions, and then silence and no explanations.  Sister Jeanne had given up all argument with her in her last year at the convent!

Mr. Parsons soon found that his words were falling upon deaf ears, and were perfectly useless.  She had cut herself adrift from her aunt and uncle, whom she cordially disliked, leaving them a letter to tell them that as she was now her own mistress, she never meant to trouble them or Mr. Greenbank again, and she bid them adieu!

“It is not as if they had ever been the least kind to me,” she did condescend to inform the lawyer.  “They couldn’t bear me really—­Samuel, although he was such a poor creature, was far the best of them.  Uncle was only wanting my money for him, and Aunt Jemima detested me, and only had me with her because Papa left in his will that she had to, or lose his legacy.  You can’t think what I’ve learned of their meannesses in the month I’ve know them!”

Thus Mr. Parsons had no further arguments to use—­and felt that after seeing her safe to his own hotel that night, and helping to engage a suitable and responsible maid next day to travel with her, he could do no more.

The question of the name troubled him most, and he almost refused to agree that she should be known as Mrs. Howard.

“But I have told Mr. Arranstoun that I mean to be only that!” Sabine exclaimed, “and he didn’t mind, and”—­here her violet eyes flashed—­“I will not be anything else—­so there!”