"My dear child, you are putting a riddle to me."
"What I want to know is," said Fanny, very determinedly, "whether, if Phœbe's father refuses his consent, Phœbe ought to marry without it." She felt that she had achieved a triumph in putting it so clearly.
"Would you marry without ours?" asked Mrs. Lethbridge.
"Mother, be logical, as Fred Cornwall says. Did you not say yourself that the cases are different?"
"Yes, I did," replied the perplexed mother.
"Well, there it is, then," said Fanny; and as her mother did not speak, she relentlessly opened another broadside.
"If an honourable gentleman really and truly loves a young lady, and if a young lady really and truly loves him in return, and if they are worthy of each other, and if there is a fair prospect of his getting along in the world in an honourable profession, and of their being truly happy together, ought they not to marry in spite of a miserly hunks of a father?"
"My dear," said Mrs. Lethbridge, "let us drop the subject, and hope for the best."
"Thank you, mother. We know that Phœbe is not happy at home."
"It is so, unfortunately."