It isn't because a woman chooses, by her folly, to separate herself from her family, that they are to be deprived of their rights in a matter of this kind.

Eh, sir, what do you say to that ?" and Mr.Tufton looked very angry, indeed.
"I don't know, sir," Charlie said.

"I have never thought the matter over." "Why, sir, suppose she had made you a tinker, sir, and you turned out a thief, as likely as not you would have done, and you'd been hung, sir, what then?
Am I to have such discredit as this brought upon me, without my having any option in the matter ?" "I suppose not, sir," Charlie said.

"I hope I shouldn't have turned out a thief, even if I'd been a tinker; but perhaps it was because my mother feared that this might be the case, that she did give you the option." His uncle looked at him keenly; but Charlie, though with some difficulty, maintained the gravest face.
"It is well she did so," Mr.Tufton said; "very well.

If she had not done so, I should have known the reason why.