e Duke and his
daughter,--that scene in which she was forbidden either to see or
to write to her lover,--not a word was said at Matching about Mr.
Tregear, nor were any steps taken towards curtailing her liberty
of action. She had said she would not write to him without telling
her father, and the Duke was too proud of the honour of his family
to believe it to be possible that she should deceive him. Nor was
it possible. Not only would her own idea of duty prevent her from
writing to her lover, although she had stipulated for the right to do
so in some possible emergency,--but, carried far beyond that in her
sense of what was right and wrong, she felt it now incumbent on her
to have no secret from her father at all. The secret, as long as it
had been a secret, had been a legacy from her mother,--and had been
kept, at her lover's instance, during that period of mourning for
her mother in which it would, she thought, have been indecorous that
there should be any question of love or of giving in marriage. It had
been a burden to her, though a necessary burden. She had been very
clear that the revelation should be made to her father, when it was
made, by her lover. That had been done,--and now it was open to her
to live without any secrecy,--as was her nature. She meant to cling
to her lover. She was quite sure of that. Nothing could divide her
from him but his death or hers,--or falseness on his part. But as
to marriage, that would not be possible till her father had assented.
And as to seeing the man,--ah, yes, if she could do so with her
father's assent! She would not be ashamed to own her great desire to
see him. She would tell her father that all her happiness depended
upon seeing him. She would not be coy in speaking of her love. But
she would obey her father.

She had a strong idea that she would ultimately prevail,--an idea
also that that "ultimately" should not be postponed to some undefined
middle-aged period of her life. As she intended to belong to Frank
Tregear, she thought it expedient that he should have the best of
her days as well as what might be supposed to be the worst; and she
therefore resolved that it would be her duty to make her father
understand that though she would certainly obey him, she would look
to be treated humanely by him, and not to be made miserable for an
indefinite term of years.

The first word spoken between them on the subject,--the first word
after that discussion,--began with h