But she took care to be present in person, and argued the point with the disappointed and incensed lover with pertinacity equal to his own.

She particularly insisted on the Levitical law, which declares that a woman shall be free of a vow which her parents dissent from.

This is the passage of Scripture she founded on: "If a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.
"If a woman also vow a vow unto the Lord, and bind herself by a bond, being in her father's house in her youth; And her father hear her vow, and her bond wherewith she hath bound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace at her: then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she hath bound her soul shall stand.
"But if her father disallow her in the day that he heareth; not any of her vows, or of her bonds wherewith she hath bound her soul, shall stand: and the Lord shall forgive her, because her father disallowed her."-- Numbers xxx.

2-5.
While the mother insisted on these topics, the lover in vain conjured the daughter to declare her own opinion and feelings.

She remained totally overwhelmed, as it seemed--mute, pale, and motionless as a statue.