t," said Peveril, "which I would refuse, with such a
prospect before me?"

"Treachery and dishonour!" replied Alice; "whatever would render you
unworthy of the poor boon at which you aim--ay, were it more worthless
than I confess it to be."

"Would your father," said Peveril, as he unwillingly received the
impression which Alice designed to convey,--"would he, whose views of
duty are so strict and severe--would he wish to involve me in aught, to
which such harsh epithets as treachery and dishonour can be applied with
the lightest shadow of truth?"

"Do not mistake me, Julian," replied the maiden; "my father is incapable
of requesting aught of you that is not to his thinking just and
honourable; nay, he conceives that he only claims from you a debt, which
is due as a creature to the Creator, and as a man to your fellow-men."

"So guarded, where can be the danger of our intercourse?" replied
Julian. "If he be resolved to require, and I determined to accede to,
nothing save what flows from conviction, what have I to fear, Alice? And
how is my intercourse with your father dangerous? Believe not so; his
speech has already made impression on me in some particulars, and
he listened with candour and patience to the objections which I made
occasionally. You do Master Bridgenorth less than justice in confounding
him with the unreasonable bigots in policy and religion, who can listen
to no argument but what favours their own prepossessions."

"Julian," replied Alice; "it is you who misjudge my father's powers,
and his purpose with respect to you, and who overrate your own powers of
resistance. I am but a girl, but I have been taught by circumstances to
think for myself, and to consider the character of those around me. My
father's views in ecclesiastical and civil policy are as dear to him as
the life which he cherishes only to advance them. They have been, with
little alteration, his companions through life. They brought him at one
period into prosperity, and when they suited not the times, he suffered
for having held them. They have become not only a part, but the very
dearest part, of his existence. If he shows them not to you at first,
in the flexible strength which they have acquired over his mind, do
not believe that they are the less powerful. He who desires to make
converts, must begin by degrees. But that he should sacrifice to an
inexperienced young man, whose ruling motive he will term a childish
passion, any part