"But everything else--I would give it all up!--governing one's self, thinking for one's self.

He should do it, and I would _bless_ him!" She looked up crimson, drawing a very long breath, as though from some deep centre of painful, passionate feeling.

It was Marcella's turn to stare.

Never had Mary so revealed herself before.
"Did you ever love any one like that, Mary ?" she asked quickly.
Mary dropped her head again over her work and did not answer immediately.
"Do you see--" she said at last, with a change of tone, "do you see that we have got our invitation ?" Marcella, about to give the rein to an eager curiosity Mary's manner had excited in her, felt herself pulled up sharply.

When she chose, this little meek creature could put on the same unapproachableness as her brother.