"What folly!" cried Robert. "Who would believe all this fuss was about a common servant girl—a disobedient, insolent servant girl. Why did she not obey my mother's order?"
Then Theodora rose to her feet. She put tears away, and answered proudly: "Because I was her mistress, and I told her to come with me."
"You told her to disobey my mother?"
"Yes. Your mother dismissed her without my permission. Suppose I had called your mother's chambermaid, and ordered her to leave the house—the cases are precisely the same."
"Not at all; mother is mistress and housekeeper. When she ordered Ducie to leave, that was quite sufficient."
"Do you expect me to obey your mother's orders?"
"I obey her orders."
"If they were kind and just orders, I would do all I could to meet them; when they are unjust and tyrannical, I will not obey them. I will be a partner in none of her sins and cruelties; I know a better way, if she does not. And I must have a maid, Robert."
"I will tell mother to hire one for you. But we shall have no more English girls, so do not expect what you will not get."
"Would any English girl want to come to Glasgow, for the sake of Glasgow? That is a difficult thing to imagine."