"I do, but I am tied and bound—yes, child, tied and bound. I can't escape; I can never escape; never, never!"
"Father, I am coming to your part of all this in a few minutes, but first I want to speak about myself. Do you dislike the man I love? You don't know him; I do. I have seen him often at the Carringtons. He is strong, and brave and upright; he is not rich, but neither is he poor; he could marry me without taking any fortune with me; he could marry me, yes, me, just as I stand, and we should be happy—happy as the day is long. Father, I won't have that old man, and, what is more, I know that he won't have me. I will tell you what I did yesterday. You and Lady Helen between you broke my heart—oh, I had an awful time! I don't blame you much, but I must—I must say that I blame you a little. I sat in my room until you went out, and then I determined that whatever happened I would live my own life, that I would not be tied and bound to that awful, dreadful stepmother of mine. I saw that she was ruining you, that she was destroying your happiness, that she was making your life a hell to you, and I vowed that she should not destroy mine. I wondered who could help me, I wondered and wondered, and at last a bold thought occurred to me, and I determined to go into the lion's den."
"Child, what do you mean?"
I put my hand on his; his hand was fat and flabby, not the firm, brown, muscular hand that I used to remember.
"I went to Lord Hawtrey," I said very quickly.
He snatched his hand away, stood upright, and looked at me.
"What! you went to Hawtrey—to his house?"
"Yes. I found his address on a visiting card. I went there in a taxi-cab; he was out, but I waited for him—he came in presently, he was very nice—oh, yes! I saw him for a minute or two. I said I wanted to speak to him; he told me he could not attend to me then or in his own house, but he would send his sister to me."
"Thank goodness!" said my father.
"Her name was Lady Mary Percy. She was a nice woman; she came and she took me to her house, and there and then I told her everything. I told her about Vernon and about—about her brother, and what her brother had said to me. She was kind, although she said one or two strange things. I could not quite understand her, and some of the things she said stuck in my mind. She seemed to think that I had refused the greatest match in England."