"I'm going to stay.

A finishing school at seventeen! I never heard the like!" With that she put her arms round the General's neck, and that was the final argument.

Secretly, indeed, he was not altogether sorry to be worsted.

He had done his best to ward off the things that might happen.
Now he was going to trust in Providence and keep his little girl with him.

To be sure, he had known that she would never go to the Dowager's.
Nelly had never considered that possibility.