within her power to say that she could not submit herself to such a
rule as his,--but having received his commands she must do that or
obey them. Then she declared to herself, not following the matter out
logically, but urged to her decision by sudden impulse, that at any
rate she would not obey Lady Aylmer. She would have nothing to do, in
any such matter, with Lady Aylmer. Lady Aylmer should be no god to
her. That question about the house at Perivale had been very painful
to her. She felt that she could have endured the dreary solitude at
Perivale without complaint, if, after her marriage, her husband's
circumstances had made such a mode of living expedient. But to have
been asked to pledge her consent to such a life before her marriage,
to feel that he was bargaining for the privilege of being rid of
her, to know that the Aylmer people were arranging that he, if he
would marry her, should be as little troubled with his wife as
possible;--all this had been very grievous to her. She had tried
to console herself by the conviction that Lady Aylmer,--not
Frederic,--had been the sinner; but even in that consolation there
had been the terrible flaw that the words had come to her written by
Frederic's hand. Could Will Belton have written such a letter to his
future wife?

In her present emergency she must be guided by her own judgment or
her own instincts,--not by any edicts from Aylmer Park! If in what
she might do she should encounter the condemnation of Captain Aylmer,
she would answer him,--she would be driven to answer him,--by
counter-condemnation of him and his mother. Let it be so. Anything
would be better than a mean, truckling subservience to the imperious
mistress of Aylmer Park.

But what should she do as regarded Mrs. Askerton? That the story was
true she was beginning to believe. That there was some such history
was made certain to her by the promise which Mrs. Askerton had given
her.

"If you want to ask any questions, and will ask them of me, I will
answer them." Such a promise would not have been volunteered unless
there was something special to be told. It would be best, perhaps, to
demand from Mrs. Askerton the fulfilment of this promise. But then
in doing so she must own from whence her information had come. Mrs.
Askerton had told her that the "communication" would be made by her
cousin Will. Her cousin Will had gone away without a word of Mrs.
Askerton, and now the "communication" had come from Capta