"Perhaps. I do not know."
"One more question yet: can you secure any liberty? Will your father settle anything upon you?"
"I don't know. I have never thought about anything of the kind."
"How could they let you go about with him so much and never ask him what he meant by it?"
"They could easier have asked me what I meant by it!"
"If I had such a jewel I would look after it!"
"Have me shut up like an eastern lady, I suppose," said Hester, laughing; "make my life miserable to make it safe. If a woman has any sense, major Marvel, she can take care of herself; if she has not, she must learn the need of it."
"Ah!" said the major sadly, "but the thousand pangs and aches and heart-sickenings! I would sooner see my child on the funeral pyre of a husband she loved, than living a merry life with one she despised!"
Hester began to feel she had not been doing the major justice.
"So would I!" she said heartily. "You mean me well, and I shall not forget how kind you have been. Now let us go back."