--yes, I can safely say--she will never find--'

'Yes, I know--I am sure; but it cannot be.'

'Then you mean to say that you will sacrifice your daughter's happiness
for the sake of a little wretched pride?'

'Why press the matter further? Why cannot we remain friends?'

'Friends! Yes, I hope we shall remain friends; but I will never consent
to give up Olive. She loves me. I know she does. My life is bound up in
hers. No, I'll never consent to give her up, and I know she won't give
me up.'

'Olive has laughed and flirted with you, but it was only _pour passer le
temps_; and I may as well tell you that you are mistaken when you think
that she loves you.'

'Olive does love me. I know she does; and I'll not believe she does
not--at least, until she tells me so. I consider I am engaged to her;
and I must beg of you, Mrs. Barton, to allow me to see her and hear from
her own lips what she has to say on this matter.'

With the eyes of one about to tempt fortune adventurously, like one
about to play a bold card for a high stake, Mrs. Barton looked on the
tall, handsome man before her; and, impersonal as were her feelings, she
could not but admire, for the space of one swift thought, the pale
aristocratic face now alive with passion. Could she depend upon Olive to
say no to him? The impression of the moment was that no girl would.
Nevertheless, she must risk the interview, and gliding towards the door,
she called; and then, as a cloud that grows bright in the sudden
sunshine, the man's face glowed with delight at the name, and a moment
after, white and drooping like a cut flower, the girl entered. Captain
Hibbert made a movement as if he were going to rush forward to meet her.
She looked as if she would have opened her arms to receive him, but Mrs.
Barton's words fell between them like a sword.

'Olive,' she said, 'I hear you are engaged to Captain Hibbert! Is it
true?'

Startled in the drift of her emotions, and believing her confidence had
been betrayed, the girl's first impulse was to deny the impeachment. No
absolute promise of marriage had she given him, and she said:

'No, mamma, I am not engaged. Did Edward--I mean Captain Hibbert--say I
was engaged to him? I am sure--'

'Didn't you tell me, Olive, that you loved me better than anyone else?
Didn't you even say you could never love anyone else? If I had thought
that--'

'I knew my daughter would not have engaged herself to you, Captain
Hibbert, without telli