It is not a question of liking; you _ought_ not to refuse." He spoke in an authoritative tone, which gave weight to his words, and in spite of herself she saw the truth of what he said.

She was one of those rare women who, being convinced against their will, are _not_ of the same opinion still.

It was ignominious to have to give way; but, after a moment's struggle with herself, she surmounted her dislike to being overruled, together with a certain unreasoning tenacity of opinion natural to her sex, and said, quietly: "What do you wish me to do ?" Charles saw the momentary struggle, and honored her for a quality which women seldom give men occasion to honor them for.
"Do you dislike walking ?" "No." "Then, if you will come out-of-doors, where there is less likelihood of interruption than in the house, I will wait for you here." She went silently down the picture-gallery, half astonished to find herself doing his bidding.

She put on her walking things mechanically, and came back in a few minutes to find him standing where she had left him.

In silence they went down-stairs, and through the piazza with its flowering orange-trees, out into the gardens, where, on the stone balustrade, the peacocks were attitudinizing and conversing in the high key in which they always proclaim a change of weather and their innate vulgarity to the world.