do so; but she had an idea that he preferred taking his walks
alone, and when they were together there was no feeling of confidence
between them. There could be none on her part, as she knew that she
was keeping back information which he was entitled to possess. On
this matter she received two letters from Mrs. Finn, in the first of
which she was told that Mr. Tregear intended to present himself at
Matching within a few days, and was advised in the same letter not to
endeavour to see her lover on that occasion; and then, in the second
she was informed that this interview with her father was to be sought
not at Matching but in London. From this latter letter there was of
course some disappointment, though some feeling of relief. Had he
come there she might possibly have seen him after the interview.
But she would have been subjected to the immediate sternness of her
father's anger. That she would now escape. She would not be called
on to meet him just when the first blow had fallen upon him. She was
quite sure that he would disapprove of the thing. She was quite sure
that he would be very angry. She knew that he was a peculiarly just
man, and yet she thought that in this he would be unjust. Had she
been called upon to sing the praises of her father she would have
insisted above all things on the absolute integrity of his mind, and
yet, knowing as she did that he would be opposed to her marriage with
Mr. Tregear, she assured herself every day and every hour that he
had no right to make any such objection. The man she loved was a
gentleman, and an honest man, by no means a fool, and subject to no
vices. Her father had no right to demand that she should give her
heart to a rich man, or to one of high rank. Rank! As for rank, she
told herself that she had the most supreme contempt for it. She
thought that she had seen it near enough already to be sure that it
ought to have no special allurements. What was it doing for her?
Simply restraining her choice among comparatively a few who seemed to
her by no means the best endowed of God's creatures.

Of one thing she was very sure, that under no pressure whatsoever
would she abandon her engagement with Mr. Tregear. That to her had
become a bond almost as holy as matrimony itself could be. She had
told the man that she loved him, and after that there could be no
retreat. He had kissed her, and she had returned his caress. He had
told her that she was his, as his arm was round her;