at a face! When I think of it now in the
night season--when from dreams that gloomy as they are, are often
elysian to the thoughts which beset me in my waking hours, I suddenly
arouse to see starting upon me from the surrounding shadows that young
fair brow with its halo of golden tresses, blotted, ay blotted by the
agony that turned her that instant into stone, I wonder I did not take
out the pistol that lay in the table near which I stood, and shoot her
lifeless on the spot as some sort of a compensation for the misery I had
caused her. I say I wonder now: then I only thought of braving it out.

"Straight as a dart, but with that look on her face, she came towards
us. 'Did I hear aright?' were the words that came from her lips. 'Have
you married me, a woman beneath your station as I now perceive, because
you were commanded to do so? Have you not loved me? given me that which
alone makes marriage a sacrament or even a possibility? and must you
leave this house made sacred by the recumbent form of your dying father
if I remain within it?'

"I saw my father's stiff and pallid lips move silently as though
he would answer for me if he could, and summoning up what courage I
possessed, I told her that I deeply regretted she had overheard my
inconsiderate words. That I had never meant to wound her, whatever
bitterness lay in my heart towards one who had thwarted me in my dearest
and most cherished hopes. That I humbly begged her pardon and would so
far acknowledge her claim upon me as to promise that I would not leave
my home at this time, if it distressed her; my desire being not to
injure her, only to protect myself.

"O the scorn that mounted to her brow at these weak words. Not scorn of
me, thank God, worthy as I was of it that hour, but scorn of my slight
opinion of her.

"'Then I heard aright,' she murmured, and waited with a look that would
not be gainsaid.

"I could only bow my head, cursing the day I was born.

"'Holman! Holman!' came in agonized entreaty from the bed, 'you will not
rob me of my daughter now?'

"Startled, I looked up. Luttra was half way to the door.

"'What are you going to do?' cried I, bounding towards her.

"She stopped me with a look. 'The son must never forsake the father,'
said she. 'If either of us must leave the house this day, let it be I.'
Then in a softer tone, 'When you asked me to be your wife, I who had
worshipped you from the moment you entered my father's house on the
memo