Staines. "She is impracticable, you see. If I do my
duty, there will be a disturbance."

Now this roused the bile of Dr. Staines. "What, sir!" said he, "you
could separate her and me by your authority, here in this very room; and
yet, when her life is at stake, you abdicate! You could part her from a
man who loved her with every drop of his heart,--and she said she loved
him, or, at all events, preferred him to others,--and you cannot part
her from a miserable corset, although you see in her poor wasted face
that it is carrying her to the churchyard. In that case, sir, there is
but one thing for you to do,--withdraw your opposition and let me
marry her. As her lover I am powerless; but invest me with a husband's
authority, and you will soon see the roses return to her cheek, and
her elastic figure expanding, and her eye beaming with health and the
happiness that comes of perfect health."

Mr. Lusignan made an answer neither of his hearers expected. He said,
"I have a great mind to take you at your word. I am too old and fond of
quiet to drive a Simpleton in single harness."

This contemptuous speech, and, above all, the word Simpleton, which had
been applied to her pretty freely by young ladies at school, and always
galled her terribly, inflicted so intolerable a wound on Rosa's vanity,
that she was ready to burst: on that, of course, her stays contributed
their mite of physical uneasiness. Thus irritated mind and body, she
burned to strike in return; and as she could not slap her father in the
presence of another, she gave it Christopher back-handed.

"You can turn me out of doors," said she, "if you are tired of your
daughter, but I am not such a SIMPLETON as to marry a tyrant. No; he has
shown the cloven foot in time. A husband's AUTHORITY, indeed!" Then she
turned her hand, and gave it him direct. "You told me a different
story when you were paying your court to me; then you were to be my
servant,--all hypocritical sweetness. You had better go and marry a
Circassian slave. They don't wear stays, and they do wear trousers; so
she will be unfeminine enough, even for you. No English lady would
let her husband dictate to her about such a thing. I can have as many
husbands as I like, without falling into the clutches of a tyrant. You
are a rude, indelicate--And so please understand it is all over between
you and me."

Both her auditors stood aghast, for she uttered this conclusion with a
dignity of which the openin