Then she rose up and went straight to her chamber.

He was sorry for himself, though not at all surprised; and he finished his
liquor, locked the house and retired. An hour had passed before he went to
bed, and he listened at Jane's door and ordained that if by evil chance he
heard her weeping he'd go in and say comforting words and play the loving
father and advance his own purpose at the same time. But Jane weren't
weeping; she was snoring, and John Warner nodded and went on. He couldn't
help admiring her, however, even at that moment.

"She's saving all her powers for to-morrow," thought Jane's parent; and
she was. She slept according to her custom, like a dormouse, and woke
refreshed to put up the fight of her life. They got to it after breakfast,
when the house-place was empty, and Warner soon found that, if he were to
have his will, 'twould be needful to call on Heaven to help him.

Jane didn't waste no time, and if her father had astonished her, she had
quite so fine a surprise for him after she'd thought it all over and
collected herself.

"'Tis in a nutshell," she said. "All my life I've put you afore everything
on earth but my Maker, and I was minded so to continue. I've been
everything any daughter ever was to a father, and you have stood to me for
my waking and sleeping thought ever since I could think at all. And now
you want me to go under in my home and see another take my place. Well,
dad, that's your look-out, of course, and if you think Mrs. Bascombe will
be more useful to you than me, then take her. But I'll say here and now,
please, that if you be going to marry, I shall leave Wych Elm for good and
all, because I couldn't endure for another woman to be over me and closer
to your interests than what I am. Never, never could I endure it. Is that