Because she felt herself unable to advocate in plain terms a thorough shutting up of her daughter,--a protecting of her from the temptation of sin by absolute and prolonged sequestration,--therefore she equivocated with him, pretending to think that he was desirous of sending his girl out to have her hair braided and herself arrayed in gold and pearls.

It was thoroughly dishonest, and he understood the dishonesty.

'She must go somewhere,' he said, rising from his chair and closing the conversation.

At this time a month had passed since Caldigate had been at Chesterton, and he had now returned from Scotland to Folking.
On the following day Hester was taken out to dinner at The Nurseries, as Robert Bolton's house was called,--was taken out by her father.

This was quite a new experiment, as she had never dined with any of her aunts and cousins except at an early dinner almost as a child,--and even as a child not at her brother Robert's.