"I will relieve you at once."
"You are not in a condition to do so. As soon as I am satisfied that your future is secure, that you will have a house to call your own, and a certainty of subsistence for you both—then I will lay down my charge."
"And you mean——"
"I mean that you must first accept Captain Coppinger, who has been good enough to find you not intolerable. He is—in this one particular—unreasonable, however, he is what he is, in this matter. He makes you the offer, gives you the chance. Take it, and you provide Jamie and yourself with a home, he has his freedom, and you can manage or mismanage him as you list. Refuse the chance and Jamie is lodged in Mr. Scantlebray's establishment within an hour."
"I cannot decide this on the spur of the moment."
"Very well. You can let Jamie go provisionally to the asylum—and stay there till you have made up your mind."
"No—no—no—Aunt! Never, never!"
"As you will." Miss Trevisa shrugged her shoulders, and cast a glance at her niece like a dagger-stab.
"Auntie—I am but a child."
"That may be. But there are times when even children must decide momentous questions. A boy as a child decides on his profession, a girl—may be—on her marriage."
"Oh, dear Auntie! Do leave Jamie here for, say a fortnight, and in a fortnight from to-day you shall have my answer."
"No," answered Miss Trevisa, "I also must decide as to my future, for your decision affects not Jamie only but me also."
Judith had listened in great self-restraint, holding the feather before her. She held it between thumb and forefinger of both hands, not concerning herself about it, and yet with her eyes watching the undulations from the end of the quill to the deep blue eye set in a halo of gold at the further end, and the feather undulated with every rise and fall of her bosom.
"Surely, Auntie! You cannot wish me to marry Cruel Coppinger?"
"I have no wishes one way or the other. Please yourself."
"But, Auntie——"
