this. You know that I never
menace idly, and if you refuse to hear reason, I will utterly disinherit
you, though you are my only child. Ponder it well. You have been raised in
luxury, and taught to believe yourself one of the wealthiest heiresses in
the state; contrast your present position, your elegant home, your
fastidious tastes gratified to the utmost; contrast all this, I say, with
poverty--imagine yourself left in the world without one cent! Think of it!
think of it! My wealth is my own, mark you, and I will give it to whom I
please, irrespective of all claims of custom. Now the alternative is fully
before you, and on your own head be the consequences. Will you accede to my
wishes, as any dutiful child should, or will you deliberately incur my
everlasting displeasure? Will you marry Hugh?"

"Father, I will not marry Hugh, so help me, God!".

Silence fell between them for several moments; something in that fixed,
calm face of his child awed him, but it was temporary and, with a bitter
laugh, he exclaimed--

"Oh, very well! Your poverty be upon your own head in coming years, when
the grave closes over me. At my death every cent of my property passes to
Hugh, and with it my name, and between you and me, as an impassable gulf,
lies my everlasting displeasure. Understand that, though we live here in
one house, as father and child, I do not, and will not, forgive you. You
have defied me; now eat the bitter fruit of your disobedience."

"I have no desire to question the disposition of your wealth; if you prefer
to give it to my cousin, I am willing, perfectly willing. I enjoy wealth as
well as most people do, I suppose; but poverty does not frighten me half so
much as a loveless marriage. Give Hugh your fortune, if you wish, but,
father! father! let there be no estrangement between you and me. I can bear
everything but your displeasure; I dread nothing so much as the loss of
your love. Oh, father! forgive a disappointment which my conscience would
not permit me to avert. Forgive the pain which, God knows, I would not have
caused you if I could have avoided it without compromising principle. Oh,
my father! my father! let not dollars and cents stand between you and your
only child. I ask nothing now but your love."

She drew nearer, but he waved her off, and said with a sneering laugh--

"Away with all such cant! I gave you the choice, and you made your
selection with your eyes fully open. Accept poverty as your doom