"To day, Eleanor?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"But Mr. Carlisle will be here, and he will not like it."
"He will have enough of me by and by, ma'am. I shall may be never have another chance of taking care of Jane. I know she wants to see me, and I am going to-day. And if she wants me very much, I shall stay all night; so you need not send."
"What will Mr. Carlisle say to all that?"
"He will say nothing to it, if you do not give him an opportunity, mamma. I am going, at all events."
"Eleanor, I am afraid you have almost too much independence, for one who is almost a married woman."
"Is independence a quality entirely given up, ma'am, when 'the ring is on'?"
"Certainly! I thought you knew that. You must make up your mind to it. You are a noble creature, Eleanor; but my comfort is that Mr. Carlisle will know how to manage you. I never could, to my satisfaction. I observe he has brought you in pretty well."
Eleanor left the room; and if the tide of her independence could have run higher, her mother's words would have furnished the necessary provocative.