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 "He is very amiable—very excellent—truly estimable, but not my master: not in one point. I could not trust myself with his happiness: I would not undertake the keeping of it for thousands: I will accept no hand which cannot hold me in check."

"I thought you liked to do as you please: you are vastly inconsistent."

"When I promise to obey, it shall be under the conviction that I can keep that promise: I could not obey a youth like Sir Philip. Besides, he would never command me: he would expect me always to rule—to guide, and I have no taste whatever for the office."

"You no taste for swaggering, and subduing, and ordering, and ruling?"

"Not my husband: only my uncle."

"Where is the difference?"

"There is a slight difference: that is certain. And I know full well, any man who wishes to live in decent comfort with me as a husband must be able to control me."

"I wish you had a real tyrant."

"A tyrant would not hold me for a day—not for an hour. I would rebel—break from him—defy him."

"Are you not enough to bewilder one's brain with your self-contradiction?"

"It is evident I bewilder your brain."

"You talk of Sir Philip being young: he is two-and-twenty."

"My husband must be thirty, with the sense of forty."