"Stepmother?"
"Father."
"Ah! Stepmothers make stepfathers, every one knows that. We shall have a dish of tea and you shall tell me about it. Then I will help you. But one can't build without stone. What has the stepfather done?"
Then Maria told her friend all her trouble, and was rather chilled in the telling by certain signs of qualified sympathy. And when the story was finished Mrs. Gordon's first remark was yet more disheartening:
"'Tis a common calamity," she said, "and better people than you have endured it."
"But, Madame——"
"Yes, I know what you are going to say. But you must consider first that your father was acting quite within his authority. He had the right to choose your husband."
"I had already chosen my husband."
"Then you ought, when you first came home, to have notified your parents. Sure, you had so much responsibility to fulfill. Why did you not do your duty in this matter?"
"I think I was afraid."