to my child's heart, and rob me
of her affections? how have you dared to come like a thief in the night,
and steal that heart away? I had never a suspicion of this--never
thought of it. Brute that you are, thus to abuse my confidence!"

"Beware of what you say, sir. I have abused no confidence. Had you ever
made me a guest at your house, ever treated me as if I had been human,
like yourself, this might never have been. At least I would have wooed
like an honest man, and your influence with your child might have nipped
it in the bud. You must put up with the consequences of your own
folly."

"Where have you ever met my daughter?"

"Never in this house, as you well know. Abroad, riding, walking, in
spite of duennas and guardians, I have wooed, and won her to myself."

"She must then have deceived you. I am certain she is the betrothed of
General Delville, who this moment converses with her in the parlor."

"You, sir, may be the one deceived. Della would not leave you without
giving you a knowledge of her love. She bade me come to you, to ask her
of you openly, and to tell you all."

"Then, sir, once for all, let me tell you, you talk in vain; never will
my pride permit my beautiful child--she whom I have educated and trained
to grace the home of the first in our land--to become the humble bride
of a hireling clerk. Out upon you, for daring to ask it!"

"And where would be the pride you boast of, should I choose to bruit to
the world those tales that I could tell, of long years of practiced
deception and guilt on your part--of wealth acquired by fraudulent
means--of midnight hours of watchfulness, which have brought you
ship-loads of contraband goods--of days and weeks spent in devising
means to escape the vigilance of our Government officers, of--"

Wilkins stopped suddenly, for Mr. Delancey fell back in his chair,
groaning aloud. The head clerk held a glass of water to his lips, and he
slowly recovered, and looked up in his visitor's face with a beseeching
glance in his cold gray eyes.

"I am in your power, but spare me! spare me! Have mercy on an old man,
who is weak and erring, but whose withered heart clings to his only
daughter!"

"You give me your consent?"

"Ask anything but that."

"And you prefer to have your name go forth to the world branded with
shame and infamy, rather than give your daughter to an honest man, who
will strive to make her a good husband, and whom she already loves?"

Mr. Delanc