‘Your papa will be very angry if you break your word to him.’

’I will write, and show you the letter.  Papa may see it, and if he will not let it go, it shall not go.  He shall not say that I broke my word.  But, mamma, I will not go out to the Islands.  I should never get back again, and I should be broken-hearted.’  Lady Rowley had nothing to say to this; and Nora went and wrote her letter.  ‘Dear Hugh,’ the letter ran, ’Papa and mamma leave England on the last Saturday in July.  I have told mamma that I cannot return with them.  Of course, you know why I stay.  Mr .Glascock is to be married the day after to-morrow, and they have asked me to go with them to Monkhams some time in August.  I think I shall do so, unless Emily wants me to remain with her.  At any rate, I shall try to be with her till I go there.  You will understand why I tell you all this.  Papa and mamma know that I am writing.  It is only a business letter, and, therefore, I shall say no more, except that I am ever and always yours Nora.’  ‘There,’ she said, handing her letter to her mother, ’I think that ought to be sent.  If papa chooses to prevent its going, he can.’

Lady Rowley, when she handed the letter to her husband, recommended that it should be allowed to go to its destination.  She admitted that, if they sent it, they would thereby signify their consent to her engagement, and she alleged that Nora was so strong in her will, and that the circumstances of their journey out to the Antipodes were so peculiar, that it was of no avail for them any longer to oppose the match.  They could not force their daughter to go with them.  ’But I can cast her off from me, if she be disobedient,’ said Sir Marmaduke.  Lady Rowley, however, had no desire that her daughter should be cast off, and was aware that Sir Marmaduke, when it came to the point of casting off, would be as little inclined to be stern as she was herself.  Sir Marmaduke, still hoping that firmness would carry the day, and believing that it behoved him to maintain his parental authority, ended the discussion by keeping possession of the letter, and saying that he would take time to consider the matter.  ’What security have we that he will ever marry her, if she does stay?’ he asked the next morning.  Lady Rowley had no doubt on this score, and protested that her opposition to Hugh Stanbury arose simply from his want of income.  ’I should never be justified,’ said Sir Marmaduke, ’if I were to go and leave my girl as it were in the hands of a penny-a-liner.’  The letter, in the end, was not sent; and Nora and her father hardly spoke to each other as they made their journey back to Florence together.