"Kitty won't go," said Ashe, quietly, "I am sorry, dear mother. I hate that you should be worried. But there's the fact. Kitty won't go!"
"Then use your authority," said Lady Tranmore.
"I have none."
"William!" Ashe rose from his seat, and began to walk up and down. His aspect of competence and dignity, as of a man already accustomed to command and destined to a high experience, had never been more marked than at the very moment of this helpless utterance. His mother looked at him with mingled admiration and amazement.
Presently he paused beside her.
"I should like you to understand me, mother. I cannot fight with Kitty. Before I asked her to marry me, I made up my mind to that. I knew then and I know now that nothing but disaster could come of it. She must be free, and I shall not attempt to coerce her."
"Or to protect her!" cried his mother.
"As to that, I shall do what I can. But I clearly foresaw when we married that we should scandalize a good many of the weaker brethren."
He smiled, but, as it seemed to his mother, with some effort.
"William! as a public man—"