Part 56 (2/2)

'My daughter!'

'Ay! your daughter, but still a woman. Do I murmur? Do I complain? Have I urged you to compromise your honour? I am ready for the sacrifice. My conduct is yours, but my feelings are my own.'

'Sacrifice, Henrietta! What sacrifice? I have heard only of your happiness; I have thought only of your happiness. This is a strange return.'

'Father, forget what you have seen; forgive what I have said. But let this subject drop for ever.'

'It cannot drop here. Captain Armine prefers his suit?' continued Mr.

Temple, in a tone of stern enquiry.

'What if he did? He has a right to do so.'

'As good a right as he had before. You are rich now, Henrietta, and he perhaps would be faithful.'

'O Ferdinand!' exclaimed Miss Temple, lifting, up her hands and eyes to heaven, 'and you must endure even this!'

'Henrietta,' said Mr. Temple in a voice of affected calmness, as he seated himself by her side, 'listen to me: I am not a harsh parent; you cannot upbraid me with insensibility to your feelings. They have ever engrossed my thought and care; and how to gratify, and when necessary how to soothe them, has long been the princ.i.p.al occupation of my life.

If you have known misery, girl, you made that misery yourself. It was not I that involved you in secret engagements and clandestine correspondence; it was not I that made you, you, my daughter, on whom I have lavished all the solicitude of long years, the dupe of the first calculating libertine who dared to trifle with your affections, and betray your heart.'

''Tis false,' exclaimed Miss Temple, interrupting him; 'he is as true and pure as I am; more, much more,' she added, in a voice of anguish.

'No doubt he has convinced you of it,' said Mr. Temple, with a laughing sneer. 'Now, mark me,' he continued, resuming his calm tone, 'you interrupted me; listen to me. You are the betrothed bride of Lord Montfort; Lord Montfort, my friend, the man I love most in the world; the most generous, the most n.o.ble, the most virtuous, the most gifted of human beings. You gave him your hand freely, under circ.u.mstances which, even if he did not possess every quality that ought to secure the affection of a woman, should bind you to him with an unswerving faith.

Falter one jot and I whistle you off for ever. You are no more daughter of mine. I am as firm as I am fond; nor would I do this, but that I know well I am doing rightly. Yes! take this Armine once more to your heart, and you receive my curse, the deepest, the sternest, the deadliest that ever descended on a daughter's head.'

'My father, my dear, dear father, my beloved father!' exclaimed Miss Temple, throwing herself at his feet. 'Oh! do not say so; oh! recall those words, those wild, those terrible words. Indeed, indeed, my heart is breaking. Pity me, pity me; for G.o.d's sake, pity me.'

'I would do more than pity you; I would save you.'

'It is not as you think,' she continued, with streaming eyes: 'indeed it is not. He has not preferred his suit, he has urged no claim. He has behaved in the most delicate, the most honourable, the most considerate manner. He has thought only of my situation. He met me by accident. My friends are his friends. They know not what has taken place between us.

He has not breathed it to human being. He has absented himself from his home, that we might not meet.'

'You must marry Lord Montfort at once.'

'Oh! my father, even as you like. But do not curse me; dream not of such terrible things; recall those fearful words; love me, love me; say I am your child. And Digby, I am true to Digby. But, indeed, can I recall the past; can I alter it? Its memory overcame me. Digby knows all; Digby knows we met; he did not curse me; he was kind and gentle.

Oh! my father!'

'My Henrietta,' said Mr. Temple, moved; 'my child!'

'Oh! my father, I will do all you wish; but speak not again as you have spoken of Ferdinand. We have done him great injustice; I have done him great injury. He is good and pure; indeed, he is; if you knew all, you would not doubt it. He was ever faithful; indeed, indeed he was. Once you liked him. Speak kindly of him, father. He is the victim. If you meet him, be gentle to him, sir: for, indeed, if you knew all, you would pity him.'

CHAPTER XVII.

_In Which Ferdinand Has a Very Stormy Interview with His Father_.

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