So he stormed the castle without delay, walked to Kencroft with the
strawberry gatherers, found the Colonel superintending the watering
of his garden, and, with effrontery of which Essie was unconscious,
led her up, and announced their mutual love, as though secure of an
ardent welcome.
He did, mayhap, expect to surprise something of the kind out of his
slowly-moving uncle, but the only answer was a strongly accentuated
"Indeed! I thought I had told you both that I would have none of
this foolery. Esther, I am ashamed of you. Go in directly."
The girl repaired to her own room to weep floods of tears over her
father's anger, and the disobedience that made itself apparent as
soon as she was beyond the spell of that specious tongue. There were
a few fears too for his disappointment; but when her mother came up
in great displeasure, the first words were—-
"O, mamma, I could not help it!"
"You could not prevent his accosting you, but you might have
prevented his giving all this trouble to papa. You know we should
never allow it."
"Indeed I only said if!"
"You had no right to say anything. When a young lady knows a man is
not to be encouraged, she should say nothing to give him an
advantage. You could never expect us to let you go to a barbarous
place at the other end of the world with a man of as good as no
religion at all.
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