little more of a fool." I laughingly said, "I will do my utmost to absorb
a little wisdom now and then as a preventive."

"Never a bit of wisdom will you ever absorb. A man who would refuse a girl
whose wealth and beauty are as great as Dorothy's, is past all hope. I
often awaken in the dark corners of the night when a man's troubles stalk
about his bed like livid demons; and when I think that all of this evil
which has come up between Dorothy and me, and all of this cursed
estrangement which is eating out my heart could have been averted if you
had consented to marry her, I cannot but feel--"

"But, Sir George," I interrupted, "it was Dorothy, not I, who refused. She
could never have been brought to marry me."

"Don't tell me, Malcolm; don't tell me," cried the old man, angrily. Drink
had made Sir George sullen and violent. It made me happy at first; but
with liquor in excess there always came to me a sort of frenzy.

"Don't tell me," continued Sir George. "There never lived a Vernon who
couldn't win a woman if he would try. But put all that aside. She would
have obeyed me. I would have forced her to marry you, and she would have
thanked me afterward."

"You could never have forced her to marry me," I replied.

"But that I could and that I would have done," said Sir George. "The like
is done every day. Girls in these modern times are all perverse, but they
are made to yield. Take the cases of Sir Thomas Mobley, Sir Grant Rhodas,
and William Kimm. Their daughters all refused to marry the men chosen for
them, but the wenches were made to yield. If I had a daughter who refused
to obey me, I would break her; I would break her. Yes, by God, I would
break her if I had to kill her," and the old man brought his clenched hand
down upon the oak table with a crash. His eyes glared frightfully, and his
face bore a forbidding expression which boded no good for Dorothy.

"She will make trouble in this matter," Sir George continued, tapping the
parchment with his middle finger.

"She will make trouble about this; but, by God, Malcolm, she shall obey
me."

He struck the oaken table another great blow with his fist, and glared
fiercely across at me.

"Lord Wyatt had trouble with his daughter when he made the marriage with
Devonshire," continued Sir George.

"A damned good match it was, too, for the girl. But she had her heart set
on young Gillman, and she refused to obey her father. She refused, by God,
point blank, to obey