different people, Melissa's father and her aunt.]]

"Unfeeling and impertinent intruder!" retorted Theodore, "dost thou add
impudence to thy interference? Go," said he, "you are unworthy of my
anger. Pursue thy grovelling schemes. Strive to win to your arms a lady
who must ever continue to despise you."

[_A&M_:

"Unfeeling and impertinent intruder, [retorted Alonzo, seizing hold
of him] is it not enough that an innocent daughter must endure a
merciless parent's persecuting hand, but must thou add to her misery
by thy disgusting interference!"--"Quit thy hold, tarquin, [said
Beauman.] Art thou determined, after storming the fortress, to
murder the garrison?"--"Go," said Alonzo, quitting him, "go sir; you
are unworthy of my anger. Pursue thy grovelling schemes. Strive to
force to your arms a lady who abhors you, and were it not on one
account, must ever continue to despise and hate you."]

"Theodore," replied Bonville, "You and I were rivals in the pursuit for
the hand of Alida. Whether from freak or fortune the preference was
given to you, I know not; and I retired in silence. From coincidence of
circumstances, I think she will now be induced to give the preference to
me, especially after her prospects of connecting with you are cut off by
the events which ruined your fortune. You, Theodore, have yet, I find,
to learn the character of woman. It has been my particular study. Alida,
now ardently impassioned by first impressions, irritated by recent
disappointment, her feelings delicate and vivid, her affections
animated, it would be strange if she could suddenly relinquish premature
attachments founded on such premises. But remove her from your presence
one year, with only distant and uncertain prospects of seeing you again,
admit me as the substitute in your absence, and she accepts my hand as
freely as she would now receive yours. I had no design. It never was my
wish to marry her without her free consent;--that I believe I shall yet
obtain. Under existing circumstances it is impossible but that you must
be separated. Then, when cool deliberation succeeds to the wild vagaries
of fancy, she will discover the dangerous precipice to which her present
inclinations lead. She will prefer indifference and splendour to love
and a cottage.

[_A&M_:

"Alonzo," replied Beauman, I perceive thou knowest me not. You and I
were rivals in our pursuit--the hand of Melissa. Whether from freak
or for