Had he been kind to her, he might have rebuked her as much as he liked.

She quite appreciated the delightful intimacy of a loving word of counsel from the man she loved,--how nice it is, as it were, to play at marriage, and to hear beforehand something of the pleasant weight of gentle marital authority.

But there had been nothing of that in his manner to her.

He had told her that she was dainty,--and had so told it her, as she thought, that she might learn thereby, that under no circumstances would he have any other tale to tell her.

If he had no other tale, why had he not been silent?
Did he think that she was subject to his rebuke merely because she lived under his mother's roof?
She would soon shew him that her residence at the Clock House gave him no such authority over her.