"Do what, madam?"
Madam stamped a little. "You know without asking, sir; personally countenance the wedding."
"Was there any reason why I should not do so? Bessy stands to me as a sister: and I like her. I am glad she is married, and I hope sincerely they'll have the best of luck."
"I had forbidden the union with Oliver Rane," stamped madam. "Do you hear?--forbidden it. You knew that as well as she did."
"But then, don't you see, mother mine, you had no particular right to forbid it. If Matilda, there, took it into her head to marry some knight or other, you would have a voice in the matter, for or against; but Bessy was responsible to her father only."
"Don't bring my name into your nonsense, Arthur," struck in Matilda, with a frown.
Madam, looking from one to the other, was biting her lips.
"They had the wedding whilst you were away that it might be got over quietly," resumed Arthur, in his laughing way, determined not to give in an inch, even though he had to tell a home truth or two. "For my part, mother, I have never understood what possible objection you could have to Rane."
"That is my business," spoke Mrs. North. "I wish he and those Cumberland people were all at the bottom of the sea. How dared you disgrace yourself, Arthur Bohun?"
"Disgrace myself?"