n entangled young
woman about the world?"

"I am not engaged, but my father and mother know that we are attached
to each other. It happened the day after you came to Eastwich, or
they would have told you. My father made me promise that we would not
correspond while I was away, as he thought that we were too young to
bind ourselves to each other, especially as Anthony has no present
prospects or means to support a wife."

"I am glad they had so much sense. It is more than might have been
expected of my sister after her own performance, for which doubtless she
is sorry enough now. Like you, she might have married a title instead of
a curate and beggary."

"I am quite sure that my mother is not sorry, Aunt," replied Barbara,
whose spirit was rising. "I know that she is a very happy woman."

"Look here, Barbara, let's come to the point. Will you give up this
moon-calf business of yours or not?"

"It is not a moon-calf business, whatever that may be, and I will not
give it up."

"Very well, then, I can't make you as you are of age. But I have done
with you. You will go to your room and stop there, and to-morrow morning
you will return to your parents, to whom I will write at once. You have
betrayed my hospitality and presumed upon my kindness; after all the
things I have given you, too," and her eyes fixed themselves upon a
pearl necklace that Barbara was wearing. For Lady Thompson could be
generous when she was in the mood.

Barbara unfastened the necklace and offered it to her aunt without a
word.

"Nonsense!" said Lady Thompson. "Do you think I want to rob you of your
trinkets because I happen to have given them to you? Keep them, they
may be useful one day when you have a husband and a family and no money.
Pearls may pay the butcher and the rent."

"Thank you for all your kindness, Aunt, and good-bye. I am sorry that
I am not able to do as you wish about marriage, but after all a woman's
life is her own."

"That's just what it isn't and never has been. A woman's life is her
husband's and her children's, and that's why--but it is no use arguing.
You have taken your own line. Perhaps you are right, God knows. At any
rate, it isn't mine, so we had better part. Still, I rather admire your
courage. I wonder what this young fellow is like for whose sake you are
prepared to lose so much; more than you think, maybe, for I had grown
fond of you. Well, good-bye, I'll see about your getting off. There,
don't think tha