mpertinent and
interfering chit."

"Is it impertinent and interfering to be anxious about one's mother's
health, even if one is a chit?" inquired Isobel, looking him straight
in the eyes.

Then he broke out in his coarse way, saying things to his daughter of
which he should have been ashamed.

She waited until he ceased, red-faced, and gasping, and replied:

"Were it not for my mother, whom you abuse, although she is such an
angel and has always been so kind to you, I would leave you, Father,
and earn my own living, or go with my uncle Edgar to Mexico, where he
is to be appointed Minister, as he and Aunt Margaret asked me to. As it
is I shall stop here, though if anything happens to Mother, because you
will not send her abroad, I shall go if I have to run away. Why won't
you let her go?" she added with a change of voice. "You need not come;
I could look after her. If you think that Egypt or the other place is
too far, you know the doctors say that perhaps Switzerland would do her
good, and that is quite near."

He caught hold of this suggestion, and exclaimed, with a sneer:

"I know why you want to go to Switzerland, Miss. To run after that
whipper-snapper of a parson's son, eh? Well, you shan't. And as for why
I won't let her go, it's because I don't believe those doctors, who say
one minute that she should go to Egypt, which is hot, and the next to
Switzerland, which is cold. Moreover, I mean you to stop in England,
and not go fooling about with a lot of strange men in these foreign
places. You are grown up now and out, and I have my own plans for your
future, which can't come off if you are away. We stop here till
Christmas, and then go to London. There, that's all, so have done."

At these insults, especially that which had to do with Godfrey, Isobel
turned perfectly scarlet and bit her lip till the blood ran. Then
without another word she went away, leaving him, if the truth were
known, a little frightened. Still, he would not alter his decision,
partly because to do so must interfere with his plans, and he was a
very obstinate man, and partly because he refused to be beaten by
Isobel. This was, he felt, a trial of strength between them, and if he
gave way now, she would be master. His wife's welfare did not enter
into his calculations.

So they stopped in Essex, where matters went as the doctors had
foretold, only more quickly than they expected. Lady Jane's complaint
grew rapidly worse, so rapidly that