"Well, the road's clear—that's all I want to know! Gipsy—"
"Ralph, it's no use. I'm not going to listen."
"The family has planned this ever since we were infants. When you used to come to Hawk Nest with your big eyes and your blue gingham dress and your white stockings—I knew it somehow even then, even when I teased you so—"
"You certainly teased me. Do you remember the rain barrel?"
"No, I don't. The family has set its heart—"
"Oh, Ralph, family can be such a tyrant! At any rate, ours will have to take its heart off this."
Ralph turned sullen. "Well, the family used to settle it for women."
"Yes, it did—when you came over with William the Conqueror! Do you want to take me, regardless—just as you'd take those millions? Well, you may take those millions, but you can't take me!"
"Your father wants it, too. The Colonel showed me a letter—"
Hagar stopped short—they were walking in the Park. "My father!... Do you think I owe my father so great a love and obedience?" She looked before her, steadily, down the vista of vast, leafless trees. "The strongest feeling," she said, "that I have about my father is one of strong curiosity."