chair, and first rushed and then trotted through the room: "There it is! There it is! There it is!" Sincerely speaking, I am sorry, uncle, you are so disappointed." Concession, contrition, never do any good with some people; instead of softening and "Ma'am, is that the way in which you conciliating, they but embolden and harden speak to me?" Shirley's foot tapped quick on the carpet. "There you sit, silent and sullen-you who promised truthful replies!" them. Of that number was Mr. Sympson: "I disappointed! What is it to me? Have I an interest in it? You would insinuate, perhaps, that I have motives?" Most people have motives of some sort 46 "Sir, I have answered you thus far. Pro- for their actions." ceed." "I should like to see that letter." 66 "She accuses me to my face! I, that have been a parent to her, she charges with bad motives !" "Bad motives I did not say." "And now you prevaricate. You have no principles." Ungrateful being! Reared by me as my away." own daughter-" "Once more, uncle, have the kindness to keep to the point. Let us both remain cool. For my part, I do not wish to get into a passion, but you know, once drive me beyond certain bounds, I care little what I say; I am not then soon checked. Listen. You have asked me whether Sir Philip made me an offer; that question is answered. What you wish to know next?" do "I desire to know whether you accepted or refused him, and know it I will.' "Certainly; you ought to know it. I refused him." "Go you shall not; I will be answered. What are your intentions, Miss Keeldar ?” "In what respect?" "In respect to matrimony." "To be quiet and do just as I please." Just as you please! The words are to the last degree indecorous." Mr. Sympson, I advise you not to become insulting; you know I will not bear that." You read French. Your mind is poisoned with French novels; you have imbibed French principles." "The ground you are treading now returns Refused him! You-you, Shirley Keel- a mighty hollow sound under your feet. Bedar-refused Sir Philip Nunnely?" "I did." ware!" "It will end in infamy sooner or later; The poor gentleman bounced from his I have foreseen it all along." 66 My husband must be thirty, with the sense of forty." "You had better pick out some old mansome white-headed or bald-headed swain." "No, thank you.' "You could lead some doting fool; you might pin him to your apron. "I might do that with a boy, but it is not my vocation. Did I not say I prefer a master-one in whose presence I shall feel obliged and disposed to be good; one whose control my impatient temper must acknowledge; a man whose approbation can reward, whose displeasure punish, me; a man I shall "I thought you liked to do as you please? feel it impossible not to love and very posYou are vastly inconsistent." sible to fear?" promise; I could not obey a youth like Sirman of rank, property, connections, far above 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." yours. If you talk of intellect, he is a poet; he writes verses, which you, I take it, cannot do, with all your cleverness." "Neither his title, wealth, pedigree nor Madam, you are wandering from the point." “Indeed, uncle, I wanted to do so, and I shall be glad to lead you away with me. Do not let us get out of temper with each other; it is not worth while." "Out of temper,' Miss Keeldar! I should be glad to know who is out of temper." "I am not, yet." "If you mean to insinuate that I am, I consider that you are guilty of impertinence." "You will be soon if you go on at that rate.” "There it is! With your pert tongue you to realities-" would try the patience of Job." "I know I should." "No levity, miss; this is not a laughing matter. It is an affair I am resolved to probe thoroughly, convinced that there is mischief at the bottom. You described just now, with far too much freedom for your years and sex, the sort of individual 464 Realities! That is the test to which you shall be brought, ma'am." "To avow before what altar I now kneel, to reveal the present idol of my soul-" secret; it must be spoken. I only wish you Mr. Sympson rose up furious; he bounced out of the room, but immediately bounced back again, shut the door, and resumed his seat: were Mr. Helstone instead of Mr. Sympson; you would sympathize with me better." 46 Madam, it is a question of common sense and common prudence, not of sympathy and sentiment, and so on. Did you say it was Mr. Helstone?" Not precisely, but as near as may be; they are rather alike.' "I will know the name; I will have particulars." "They positively are rather alike; their very faces are not dissimilar-a pair of human falcons—and dry, direct, decided, both. But my hero is the mightier of the two; his mind has the clearness of the deep sea, the patience of its rocks, the force of its billows." "Rant and fustian!" "I dare say he can be harsh as a saw-edge and gruff as a hungry raven." What right have you, Mr. Sympson, to ask me?" "I insist upon knowing." "You don't go the way to know." "My family respectability shall not be compromised." "A good resolution; keep it." Madam, it is you who shall keep it." "Impossible, sir, since I form no part of "Miss Keeldar, does the person reside in your family." Briarfield? Answer me that." "Uncle, I am going to tell you; his name is trembling on my tongue." 'Speak, girl!" 'That was well said, uncle. 'Speak, girl!' It is quite tragic. England has howled savagely against this man, uncle, and she will one day roar exultingly over him. He has been unscared by the howl, and he will be unelated by the shout." "I said she was mad: she is." "This country will change, and change again, in her demeanor to him; he will never change in his duty to her. cease to chafe, uncle; I'll tell name." "You shall tell me, or-' Come, his you "Do you disown us?" "I disdain your dictatorship." Who will you marry, Miss Keeldar?" "Not Mr. Sam Wynne, because I scorn him; not Sir Philip Nunuely, because I only esteem him." "Listen! Arthur Wellesley, Lord Wel- treated." lington." "Do you know," leaning mysteriously for ward and speaking with ghastly solemnity- the same tongue. 66 It does. Your name is in every mouth.' It honors the lips it crosses, and I wish it may purify them." Let us part. It is not," she resumed, much excited-"it is not that I hate you. You are a good sort of man-perhaps you mean well in your way-but we cannot suit; we are at variance. You annoy me with small meddling, with petty tyranny; you exasperate my temper and make and keep me passion "Is it that person who has power to ate. As to your small maxims, your nar influence you?" row rules, your little prejudices, aversions, "Beyond any whose cause you have ad- dogmas, bundle them off, Mr. Sympson; go vocated." "Is it he you will marry?" offer them a sacrifice to the deity you worship. I'll none of them; I wash my hands "He is handsome and manly and com- of the lot. I walk by another creed, light, manding." faith and hope than you." You declare it to my face? The Flemish knave! The low trader!" "He is talented and venturous and resolute. 'Prince' is on his brow, and 'ruler' in his bearing." "She glories in it! She conceals nothing! No shame, no fear!" "When we speak the name of Moore, shame should be forgotten and fear discarded; the Moores know only honor and courage." "I say she is mad." "You have taunted me till my blood is up; you have worried me till I turn again. "That Moore is the brother of my son's tutor. Would you let the usher call you 'sister'?" "Mr. Sympson, I am sick at heart with all this weak trash; I will hear no more. Your thoughts are not my thoughts, your aims are not my aims, your gods are not my gods. We do not view things in the same light; we do not measure them by the same standard; we hardly speak in "Another creed'! I believe she is an infidel." "An infidel to your religion-to your god. Your god, sir, is the world. In my eyes you too, if not an infidel, are an idolater. I conceive that you ignorantly worship; in all things you appear to me too superstitious. Sir, your god, your great Bel, your fish-tailed Dagon, rises before me as a demon. You, and such as you, have raised him to a throne, put on him a crown, given him a sceptre. Behold how hideously he governs! See him busied at the work he likes best-making marriages. He binds the young to the old, the strong to the imbecile; he stretches out the arm of Mezentius and fetters the dead to the living. In his realm there is hatred― secret hatred; there is disgust-unspoken disgust; there is treachery-family treachery: there is vice-deep, deadly, domestic vice. In his dominions children grow unloving between parents who have never loved; infants are nursed on deception from their very birth; they are reared in an atmosphere corrupt with lies. Your god rules at the bridal of kings: |