"You may say what you like, but it is a rash venture," persisted the matron, shaking her head. "She has known him but for such a very short time. Really, I feel that I am much to blame to let her run into it like this—with so little knowledge of what she is undertaking. And he has a difficult temperament, Elizabeth. There is no denying it—good and nice as he is, he is terribly obstinate about getting his own way. And if he is so now, what will he be, do you suppose, presently?"
Patty, sitting on her heels on the floor, with her sister's clothes spread around her, looked up and laughed.
"Ah! that is one safeguard against too much happiness, perhaps. I do think, with Mrs. Duff-Scott, that you have met your master, my dear."
"I don't think it," replied Elizabeth, serenely. "I know I have."
"And you are quite content to be mastered?"
"Yes—by him."
"Of course you are. Who would marry a chicken-hearted milksop if she could get a splendid tyrant like that?" exclaimed Patty, fervently, for the moment forgetting there were such things as woman's rights in the world. "I wouldn't give a straw for a man who let you have your own way—unless, of course, he was no wiser than you. A man who sets up to domineer when he can't carry it out thoroughly is the most detestable and contemptible of created beings, but there is no want of thoroughness about him. To see him standing up at the table in the library this afternoon and defying Mrs. Duff-Scott to prevent him from marrying you to-morrow did one's heart good. It did indeed."
"I daresay," said the fairy godmother. "But I should like to see you with a man like that to deal with. It is really a pity he did not take to you instead of Elizabeth. I should have liked to see what would have happened. The 'Taming of the Shrew' would have been a trifle to it."
"Well," said Patty, "he will be my brother and lawful guardian to-morrow, and I suppose I shall have to accept his authority to a certain extent. Then you will see what will happen." She was silent for a few minutes, folding the Indian silk into the portmanteau, and a slow smile spread over her face. "We shall have some fights," she said, laughing softly. "But it will be worth while to fight with him."
"Elizabeth will never fight with him," said Eleanor.