ope to behold."

"Harry Jardine, you are mad, or worse; these are some of the sickening
French and German sentimentalities against which I have been warned.
There is such a thing as a wholesome sense of repulsion, an honest
manly recoil, a pure instinct of loathing, a thousand times to be
preferred to this morbid mixture of good and evil, friend and foe, life
and death, this defiance of decency and general opinion."

"Very true, mother; but there are a thousand exceptional cases, and a
million points of ruthless prejudice. 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth
for a tooth,' sounded very righteous and respectable in the ears of the
Jews, yet I believe the sentence had its condemnation, and the amendment
was neither French nor German."

"Harry, you are profane, and you forget what is due to yourself and me."

The last saying was a hard one; his mother could be no judge of his
profanity, but he had been a good son, and it had not been without
a curb upon him that the strong man had accustomed himself to leave
so much of the power and authority of Whitethorn in the wilful
woman's hands.

In the library at the Ewes Mr. Crawfurd was addressing Joanna
very gently.

"My dear, I am very sorry it cannot be; of course Mrs. Jardine will
never consent, but it goes to my heart to grieve you."

"Papa, I cannot help it."

"And to grieve Harry Jardine."

"Papa, that is worse; but do not think that anybody--that he
blames you."

"We shall trust, my dear, that he will soon recover the
disappointment."

"Of course--it is not a great loss."

"My dear, pray don't smile when it hurts you, for I cannot bear it; it
is natural that this should be a heavy cross to you; but setting it
aside as unavoidable, is there no respect in which I can lighten it to
you? No indulgence which you could fancy that I could procure for you?
No old wish of his Joan's that papa could by an effort gratify? Surely I
cannot be so miserable, child."

"Oh, no, papa! I mean you can please in a great many things; you always
could, and you always will. Women are not like men, their natures are
not so concentrated. They have so many tastes and whims, you know; I
possess them by the score, and I will never cease to relish their
fulfilment so long as you and I keep labouring together, papa. I am not
going to be a hypocrite, papa. This strange story has vexed me a good
deal, but I was aware from the first of its unsubstantial character. I
still want money to be char