On that same evening Silverbridge wrote from the Beargarden the shortest possible note to Lady Mabel, telling her what he had arranged. "I and Mary propose to call in B. Square on Friday at two. I must be early because of the House. You will give us lunch. S." There was no word of endearment,—none even of those ordinary words which people who hate each other use to one another. But he received the next day at home a much more kindly-written note from her:
Dear Lord Silverbridge,
You are so good! You always do just what you think people will like best. Nothing could please me so much as seeing your sister, of whom of course I have heard very very much. There shall be nobody here but Miss Cass.
Yours most sincerely,
M. G.
"How I do wish I were a man!" his sister said to him when they were in the hansom together.
"You'd have a great deal more trouble."
"But I'd have a hansom of my own, and go where I pleased. How would you like to be shut up at a place like The Horns?"
"You can go out if you like it."
"Not like you. Papa thinks it's the proper place for me to live in, and so I must live there. I don't think a woman ever chooses how or where she shall live herself."
"You are not going to take up woman's rights, I hope."
"I think I shall if I stay at The Horns much longer. What would papa say if he heard that I was going to give a lecture at an Institute?"
"The governor has had so many things to bear that a trifle such as that would make but little difference."