pleasure. This was not strange;
these three persons, Dudley Venner, his daughter, and his nephew,
represented all that remained of an old and honorable family. Had Elsie
been like other girls, her father might have been less willing to
entertain a young fellow like Dick as an inmate; but he had long outgrown
all the slighter apprehensions which he might have had in common with all
parents, and followed rather than led the imperious instincts of his
daughter. It was not a question of sentiment, but of life and death, or
more than that,--some dark ending, perhaps, which would close the
history of his race with disaster and evil report upon the lips of all
coming generations.

As to the thought of his nephew's making love to his daughter, it had
almost passed from his mind. He had been so long in the habit of looking
at Elsie as outside of all common influences and exceptional in the law
of her nature, that it was difficult for him to think of her as a girl to
be fallen in love with. Many persons are surprised, when others court
their female relatives; they know them as good young or old women
enough,--aunts, sisters, nieces, daughters, whatever they may be,--but
never think of anybody's falling in love with them, any more than of
their being struck by lightning. But in this case there were special
reasons, in addition to the common family delusion,--reasons which seemed
to make it impossible that she should attract a suitor. Who would dare
to marry Elsie? No, let her have the pleasure, if it was one, at any
rate the wholesome excitement, of companionship; it might save her from
lapsing into melancholy or a worse form of madness. Dudley Venner had a
kind of superstition, too, that, if Elsie could only outlive three
septenaries, twenty-one years, so that, according to the prevalent idea,
her whole frame would have been thrice made over, counting from her
birth, she would revert to the natural standard of health of mind and
feelings from which she had been so long perverted. The thought of any
other motive than love being sufficient to induce Richard to become her
suitor had not occurred to him. He had married early, at that happy
period when interested motives are least apt to influence the choice; and
his single idea of marriage was, that it was the union of persons
naturally drawn towards each other by some mutual attraction. Very
simple, perhaps; but he had lived lonely for many years since his wife's
death,