h me as a husband must
be able to control me."

"I wish you had a real tyrant."

"A tyrant would not hold me for a day, not for an hour. I would
rebel--break from him--defy him."

"Are you not enough to bewilder one's brain with your
self-contradiction?"

"It is evident I bewilder your brain."

"You talk of Sir Philip being young. He is two-and-twenty."

"My husband must be thirty, with the sense of forty."

"You had better pick out some old man--some white-headed or bald-headed
swain."

"No, thank you."

"You could lead some doting fool; you might pin him to your apron."

"I might do that with a boy; but it is not my vocation. Did I not say I
prefer a _master_--one in whose presence I shall feel obliged and
disposed to be good; one whose control my impatient temper must
acknowledge; a man whose approbation can reward, whose displeasure
punish me; a man I shall feel it impossible not to love, and very
possible to fear?"

"What is there to hinder you from doing all this with Sir Philip? He is
a baronet--a man of rank, property, connections far above yours. If you
talk of intellect, he is a poet--he writes verses; which you, I take it,
cannot do, with all your cleverness."

"Neither his title, wealth, pedigree, nor poetry avail to invest him
with the power I describe. These are feather-weights; they want ballast.
A measure of sound, solid, practical sense would have stood him in
better stead with me."

"You and Henry rave about poetry! You used to catch fire like tinder on
the subject when you were a girl."

"O uncle, there is nothing really valuable in this world, there is
nothing glorious in the world to come that is not poetry!"

"Marry a poet, then, in God's name!"

"Show him me, and I will."

"Sir Philip."

"Not at all. You are almost as good a poet as he."

"Madam, you are wandering from the point."

"Indeed, uncle, I wanted to do so, and I shall be glad to lead you away
with me. Do not let us get out of temper with each other; it is not
worth while."

"Out of temper, Miss Keeldar! I should be glad to know who is out of
temper."

"_I_ am not, yet."

"If you mean to insinuate that _I_ am, I consider that you are guilty of
impertinence."

"You will be soon, if you go on at that rate."

"There it is! With your pert tongue you would try the patience of a
Job."

"I know I should."

"No levity, miss! This is not a laughing matter. It is an affair I am
resolved to probe thoroughly, c