"Yes, indeed," said he, firmly. "I am a believer in the good old robust
virtues that have made England what she is--or rather, what she has
been. I'm not a sentimentalist. If the sentimentalists and the theorists
and the faddists go on as they are doing, they'll soon leave us without
any England at all; England will be moralized away to nothing; there
will only be her name and her literature left to remind the world that
she once existed. The equal rights of women--that's one of their fads.
The equal rights of women! Bosh! Women ought to be very proud and
grateful that they are allowed to live at all! However, that is a
general principle; the particular application of it is that a man should
be master in his own house, and that his wife's first and paramount duty
is to obey him--"

"You shouldn't frighten me too soon, Maurice," she said--but she did not
appear to be terribly scared.

"And I mean to begin as I mean to end," said he, ominously, as they were
about to cross the street on their way back. "I am not going to marry a
wife who will have all her interests out of doors. I will not allow it.
A woman, madam, should attend to her own house and her own husband, and
not spend her time in gadding about hospitals and sick-wards and making
friends and companions of nurses."

Francie laughed at him.

"Why, Maurice," said she, as they were about to enter, "you yourself are
the very best nurse I ever saw!"

But it was not in this mood that Mangan received Miss Burgoyne when she
called that afternoon to make inquiries. She and her brother were shown
to the room up-stairs, and thither Mangan followed them. He was very
polite and cold and courteous; told her that Lionel was getting on very
well; that the fever was subsiding, and that he was quite sensible
again, though very weak; and said he hoped his complete recovery was now
only a question of time. But when the young lady--with more hesitation
than she usually displayed--preferred a request that she might be
allowed to see Mr. Moore, Maurice met that by a gently decisive
negative.

"He is not to be disturbed in any way. Perfect rest is what the doctors
ordain. He has been left a wreck, but his fine constitution will pull
him through; in the meantime we have to be most careful."

She was silent and thoughtful for a minute.

"I can't see him?"

"I think not--it would be most unwise. You would not wish to do anything
inconsiderate."

"Oh, certainly not. May I write