hy should others interfere? And if the
life and conduct of her cousin were in truth so bad as they were
represented,--which she did not in the least believe,--why had he
been allowed to come within her reach? It was not only that he was
young, clever, handsome, and in every way attractive, but that, in
addition to all this, he was a Hotspur, and would some day be the
head of the Hotspurs. Her father had known well enough that her
family pride was equal to his own. Was it not natural that, when a
man so endowed had come in her way, she should learn to love him? And
when she had loved him, was it not right that she should cling to her
love?

Her father would fain treat her like a beast of burden kept in the
stables for a purpose; or like a dog whose obedience and affections
might be transferred from one master to another for a price. She
would obey her father; but her father should be made to understand
that hers was not the nature of a beast of burden or of a dog. She
was a Hotspur as thoroughly as was he. And then they brought men
there to her, selected suitors, whom she despised. What did they
think of her when imagining that she would take a husband not of
her own choosing? What must be their idea of love, and of marriage
duty, and of that close intercourse of man and wife? To her feeling
a woman should not marry at all unless she could so love a man as
to acknowledge to herself that she was imperatively required to
sacrifice all that belonged to her for his welfare and good. Such was
her love for George Hotspur,--let him be what he might. They told
her that he was bad and that he would drag her into the mud. She was
willing to be dragged into the mud; or, at any rate, to make her own
struggle during the dragging, as to whether he should drag her in, or
she should drag him out.

And then they brought men to her--walking-sticks,--Lord Alfred and
young Mr. Thoresby, and insulted her by supposing of her that she
would marry a man simply because he was brought there as a fitting
husband. She would be dutiful and obedient as a daughter, according
to her idea of duty and of principle; but she would let them know
that she had an identity of her own, and that she was not to be
moulded like a piece of clay.

No doubt she was hard upon her father. No doubt she was in very
truth disobedient and disrespectful. It was not that she should have
married any Lord Alfred that was brought to her, but that she should
have struggled