As the foolish young woman chose to accept good fortune in a perverse spirit, it was well that they two should see as little of each other as possible.
Every evening found Mr.Whitelaw a punctual visitor in the snug panelled parlour, and at such times the bailiff insisted upon his daughter's presence; she was obliged to sit there night after night, stitching monotonously at some unknown calico garment--which might well from the state of mind of the worker have been her winding-sheet; or darning one of an inexhaustible basket of woollen stockings belonging to her father.
It was her irksome duty to be there, ready to receive any awkward compliment of her silent lover's, ready to acquiesce meekly in his talk of their approaching wedding.

But at all other times Mr.Carley was more than content with her absence.
At first the bailiff had made a feeble attempt to reconcile his daughter to her position by the common bribe of fine clothes.

He had extorted a sum of money from Stephen Whitelaw for this purpose, and had given that sum, or a considerable part of it, to his daughter, bidding her expend it upon her wedding finery.

The girl took the money, and spent a few pounds upon the furbishing-up of her wardrobe, which was by no means an extensive one; but the remaining ten-pound note she laid by in a secret place, determined on no account to break in upon it.
"The time may come when all my life will depend upon the possession of a few pounds," she said to herself; "when I may have some chance of setting myself free from that man." She had begun to contemplate such a possibility already, before her wedding-day.

It was for her father's sake she was going to sell her liberty, to take upon herself a bondage most odious to her.