have given you every indulgence and liberty. Your
smallest wish has been regarded. If I could wipe out the past and begin
anew, I feel that I should act very differently. I should wield a rod of
iron, and teach my own flesh and blood to obey by saying, 'Do this!' and
'You shall not do that!' The result could be no worse than it has been
under the other system. Is the judgment of the new generation so
infallible," he continued, "that it can afford to dispense with
obedience and filial respect altogether? You have had one lesson
already, Virginia, but you have failed to profit by it. When that
fortune-hunting, idle dandy was whispering his pretty speeches in your
ear, was it your own good sense that saved you from a miserable
alliance? No; if I had not for once in my life stepped in and said, 'You
do this thing at your own peril,' and proved to you the paltry soul of
the fellow, what would you be to-day? Broken-hearted and old before your
time. But that was when you were almost a child, and without experience.
I was made very unhappy, but I said to myself, 'She will grow wiser as
she grows older.' And I thought you had. In the multitude of my business
cares I have merely had time to observe you in a general way. But I
supposed the serious and absorbed air which your face has worn came from
the interest of your studies, and that those studies were fitting you
for the work I had planned for you. I wish now that you had never
touched a book in your life. Better in my opinion to be the careless
butterfly of society than the fanatic. I never expected to live to see
my only child so blind to common-sense as to wish to follow such a
monstrous theory as you have described. Money! Why, it is the power and
possibility of the world. But what good are words? If you cannot see the
folly and unsoundness of it at a glance, it is useless for me to talk.
Go your own ways. Marry whom you like. Not a dollar of my money--"

He stopped as he realized the futility of his threat, and covered his
face again with his hands.

Looking back over many years, it seems to me at times incredible that I
should have held out so long against such entreaty and distress; but it
is to be said on the other hand that my whole future happiness was
involved in the decision of the question. My natural obstinacy had
deepened as I listened to his words, and had tended to counteract the
affection and pity I felt for him.

"If I were only sure that you are right!" I