My guardian angel!--my guardian angel! Maud, _you_ have a heart.' He
addressed me suddenly--'Listen, for a few moments, to the appeal of an old
and broken-hearted man--your guardian--your uncle--your _suppliant_. I had
resolved never to speak to you more on this subject. But I was wrong. It
was pride that inspired me--mere pride.'

I felt myself growing pale and flushed by turns during the pause that
followed.

'I'm very miserable--very nearly desperate. What remains for me--what
remains? Fortune has done her worst--thrown in the dust, her wheels rolled
over me; and the servile world, who follow her chariot like a mob, stamp
upon the mangled wretch. All this had passed over me, and left me scarred
and bloodless in this solitude. It was not my fault, Maud--I say it was no
fault of mine; I have no remorse, though more regrets than I can count,
and all scored with fire. As people passed by Bartram, and looked upon its
neglected grounds and smokeless chimneys, they thought my plight, I dare
say, about the worst a proud man could be reduced to. They could not
imagine one half its misery. But this old hectic--this old epileptic--this
old spectre of wrongs, calamities, and follies, had still one hope--my
manly though untutored son--the last male scion of the Ruthyns. Maud, have
I lost him? His fate--my fate--I may say _Milly's fate_;--we all await your
sentence. He loves you, as none but the very young can love, and that once
only in a life. He loves you desperately--a most affectionate nature--a
Ruthyn, the best blood in England--the last man of the race; and I--if I
lose him I lose all; and you will see me in my coffin, Maud, before many
months. I stand before you in the attitude of a suppliant--shall I kneel?'

His eyes were fixed on me with the light of despair, his knotted hands
clasped, his whole figure bowed toward me. I was inexpressibly shocked and
pained.

'Oh, uncle! uncle!' I cried, and from very excitement I burst into tears.

I saw that his eyes were fixed on me with a dismal scrutiny. I think he
divined the nature of my agitation; but he determined, notwithstanding, to
press me while my helpless agitation continued.

'You see my suspense--you see my miserable and frightful suspense. You are
kind, Maud; you love your father's memory; your pity your father's brother;
you would not say no, and place a pistol at his head?'

'Oh! I must--I must--I _must_ say no. Oh! spare me, uncle, for Heaven's
sake. Don't que