"Demmy, she'd jump out of the window and break her neck! or hang herself with her garters! or starve herself to death! You don't know what an untamable thing she is. Some birds, if caged, beat themselves to death against the bars of their prison. She is just such a wild bird as that."
"Humph! it is a difficult case to manage; but you should not shrink from responsibility; you should be firm with her."
"That's just what I can't be with the witch, confound her! she is such a wag, such a drole, such a mimic; disobeys me in such a mocking, cajoling, affectionate way. I could not give her pain if her soul depended on it!"
"Then you should talk to her; try moral suasion."
"Yes; if I could only get her to be serious long enough to listen to me! But you see Cap isn't sentimental, and if I try to be she laughs in my face."
"But, then, is she so insensible to all the benefits you have conferred upon her? Will not gratitude influence her?"
"Yes; so far as repaying me with a genuine affection, fervent caresses and careful attention to my little comforts can go; but Cap evidently thinks that the restriction of her liberty is too heavy a price to pay for protection and support. The little rogue! Think of her actually threatening, in her good-humored way, to cite me before the nearest justice to show cause why I detained her in my house!"
"Well, you could easily do that, I suppose, and she could no longer oppose your authority."
"No; that is just what I couldn't do; I couldn't show any legal rights to detain Capitola."
"Humph! That complicates the case very much!"