ror and dismay escaping her; for
there, in the middle of the hall, the moonlight falling full upon
his tall rugged figure, stood her father, waiting with folded arms
for his truant daughter, a look upon his stern face that she
shivered to behold.

"So, girl!" he exclaimed, making one stride forward and catching
the frail wrist in a vice-like grasp which almost extorted a cry of
pain--"so, my daughter, thou hast come in from this midnight tryst
with thy lover! And what dost thou think is the reward a father
bestows upon a daughter who leaves his house at this dead hour of
the night to meet the man he has bidden her eschew for ever?"

Petronella's agitation was so great that she was well-nigh
swooning. Her nerves had been on the strain for some time. The
excitement of seeing Cuthbert again, of hearing his story and
telling her own, had been considerable. And now to be confronted by
a furious father, and accused of having broken her solemn pledge,
and of having met her lover at an hour of the night when no
virtuous maiden would dream of such a tryst, was more than she
could bear. Slipping to her knees, she laid her hand upon her
father's robe, and clutching hold of it, as if for support, she
gasped out the one word:

"Pardon! pardon!"

"Thou mayest well sue for pardon, false jade; but to win it is
another matter. Say, vile girl, whom I blush to call my
daughter--say how oft hast thou thus gone forth to meet thy lover?"

"Father--father, revile me not thus!" cried the girl, beside
herself with agitation, fearful of betraying Cuthbert's near
presence to the Gate House, lest the angry man should contrive to
do him some injury or gain some hold upon him, yet terrified at the
accusations levelled at her own head, which seemed to bear some
show of reason. "Father, have pity; drive me not to despair, as
thou didst drive my brother. I am so lonely and so miserable. Pity
me! pardon me!"

"Answer my question, base girl. How oft hast thou done this deed
before tonight?"

"Never before, my father, never before! Ah, do not be too hard upon
me! I have done no wrong--I swear it!"

"Keep thy false oaths for thy false lover!" cried the angry man; "I
will have none of them. Thou hast passed me thy word once, and I
believed thee, and thou hast played me false. I will never believe
thee again--never, never! Thou hast made thy bed, and thou shalt
lie upon it."

And with that the angry man flung the kneeling girl from him with
su