She draws back haughtily, then wrath gets the better of dignity, and she breaks out again.

"What a _horrid_ answer! _You_ are unfeeling if you like!" "_I_ am ?" "Yes, yes! You would deny me this small gratification, you would lock me up for ever with Aunt Jane, you would debar me from everything! Oh!" her lips trembling, "how I wish--I _wish--_guardians had never been invented." The professor almost begins to wish the same.

Almost--perhaps not quite! That accusation about wishing to keep her locked up for ever with Miss Majendie is so manifestly unjust that he takes it hardly.
Has he not spent all this past week striving to open a way of escape for her from the home she so detests! But, after all, how could she know that?
"You have misunderstood me," says he calmly, gravely.

"Far from wishing you to deny yourself this concert, I am glad--glad from my _heart_--that you are going to it--that some small pleasure has fallen into your life.

Your aunt's home is an unhappy one for you, I know, but you should remember that even if--if you have got to stay with her until you become your own mistress, still that will not be forever." "No, I shall not stay there for ever," says she slowly.