"Gertrude has her own way with her mother altogether. And of course a daughter cannot really be turned out. If she tells me to go I suppose I must go."
"I should ask Uncle Tom," said Ayala. "She could not make you go out into the street. When she had to get rid of me, she could send me here in exchange; but she can't say now that you don't suit, and have me back again."
"Oh, Ayala, it is so miserable. I feel that I do not know what to do with myself."
"Nor do I," said Ayala, jumping up from the bed on which she was sitting. "It does seem to be so cross-grained. Nobody will let you marry, and everybody will make me."
"Do they still trouble you about Tom?"
"It is not Tom now, Lucy. Another man has come up."
"As a lover?"
"Oh, yes; quite so. His name is,—such a name, Lucy,—his name is Colonel Jonathan Stubbs."
"That is Isadore's friend,—the man who lives at Drumcaller."
"Exactly. He told me that Mr. Hamel was at Drumcaller with him. And now he wants me to be his wife."