himself
to witness the meeting of that vile man with his child.

Still Florence remained immovable; Jameson closed the door, and
walking quickly across the room, like one afraid to trust his own
strength, bent over the sofa.

Florence was lying with her face to the wall, her eyes were closed,
and the whiteness of her features was rendered more deathly by the dim
light. She had evidently heard the footstep, and mistaking it for her
father's, for her eyelids began to quiver, and turning her face to the
pillow, she gasped out with a shudder,

"Oh, father, father, do not look on me!"

Jameson knelt and touched the cold hand in which she had grasped a
portion of the pillow.

"Florence!"

Florence started up, a faint exclamation broke from her lips, and she
pressed herself against the back of the sofa, in the shuddering recoil
with which she attempted to evade him.

Jameson drew back, and for the instant his countenance evinced
genuine emotion. His self-love was cruelly shocked by the evident
loathing with which she shrunk away from the arm that, only a few days
before, had brought the bright blood into her cheeks did she but rest
her hand upon it by accident.

"And do you hate me so, Florence?" he said, in a voice that was full
of keen feeling.

"Leave me--leave me, I am ill!" cried the poor girl, sitting up on the
sofa, and holding a hand to her forehead, as if she were suffering
great pain.

"_I_ come by your father's permission, Florence; will you be more
cruel than he is?"

"My father has a right to punish me, I have deserved it," she said, in
a voice of painful humility. "If he sent you I will try to bear it."

"Oh, Florence, has it come to this; I am about to leave you forever,
and yet you shrink from me as if I were a reptile," cried Jameson.

"A reptile! oh, no, they seldom sting unless trodden upon," said
Florence, lifting her large eyes to his face for the first time, but
withdrawing them instantly, and with a faint moan.

Jameson turned from her and paced the room once or twice with uneven
strides. This seemed to give Florence more strength, for the closeness
of his presence had absolutely oppressed her with a sense of
suffocation. She sat upright, and putting the hair back from her
temples, tried to collect her thoughts. Jameson broke off his walk and
turned toward her; but she prevented his nearer approach with a motion
of her hand, and spoke with some degree of calmness.

"You have sought m