-but mamma will speak to you about that. What I want you to
understand from me is this,--that there must be an end to it."

Nora listened to this speech in perfect silence, standing before her
father, and waiting patiently till the last word of it should be
pronounced. Even when he had finished she still paused before she
answered him. "Papa," she said at last, and hesitated again before
she went on.

"Well, my dear."

"I can not give it up."

"But you must give it up."

[Illustration: "But you must give it up," said Sir Marmaduke.]

"No, papa. I would do anything I could for you and mamma, but that is
impossible."

"Why is it impossible?"

"Because I love him so dearly."

"That is nonsense. That is what all girls say when they choose to
run against their parents. I tell you that it shall be given up. I
will not have him here. I forbid you to see him. It is quite out of
the question that you should marry such a man. I do hope, Nora, that
you are not going to add to mamma's difficulties and mine by being
obstinate and disobedient." He paused a moment, and then added, "I do
not think that there is anything more to be said."

"Papa."

"My dear, I think you had better say nothing further about it. If you
cannot bring yourself at the present moment to promise that there
shall be an end of it, you had better hold your tongue. You have
heard what I say, and you have heard what mamma says. I do not for
a moment suppose that you dream of carrying on a communication with
this gentleman in opposition to our wishes."

"But I do."

"Do what?"

"Papa, you had better listen to me." Sir Marmaduke, when he heard
this, assumed an air of increased authority, in which he intended
that paternal anger should be visible; but he seated himself, and
prepared to receive, at any rate, some of the arguments with which
Nora intended to bolster up her bad cause. "I have promised Mr.
Stanbury that I will be his wife."

"That is all nonsense."

"Do listen to me, papa. I have listened to you and you ought to
listen to me. I have promised him, and I must keep my promise. I
shall keep my promise if he wishes it. There is a time when a girl
must be supposed to know what is best for herself,--just as there is
for a man."

"I never heard such stuff in all my life. Do you mean that you'll go
out and marry him like a beggar, with nothing but what you stand up
in, with no friend to be with you, an outcast, thrown off by your
mo