Frank has been foolish: I have said nothing of it, for it was not worth while to trouble you.
But as Lady Arabella chooses to interfere, I have no right to blame her.

He has said what he should not have said; he has been foolish.
Uncle, you know I could not prevent it." "Let her send him away then, not you; let her banish him." "Uncle, he is her son.

A mother can hardly send her son away so easily: could you send me away, uncle ?" He merely answered her by twining his arm round her waist and pressing her to his side.

He was well sure that she was badly treated; and yet now that she so unaccountably took Lady Arabella's part, he hardly knew how to make this out plainly to be the case.
"Besides, uncle, Greshamsbury is in a manner his own; how can he be banished from his father's house?
No, uncle; there is an end of my visits there.

They shall find that I will not thrust myself in their way." And then Mary, with a calm brow and steady gait, went in and made the tea.
And what might be the feelings of her heart when she so sententiously told her uncle that Frank had been foolish?
She was of the same age with him; as impressionable, though more powerful in hiding such impressions,--as all women should be; her heart was as warm, her blood as full of life, her innate desire for the companionship of some much-loved object as strong as his.