that her husband might not have caught the words; but she was widely
mistaken. The ears so much in the habit of listening to the least quaver
in the tone of a witness's voice, were not to be trifled with in the
present instance.

"Hey? What is this?" asked the Judge, in a tone that admitted of no
trifling in the answer.

"Nothing--that is--Emily was talking of--" began the abashed wife, with
a stammer.

"Of--_I_ know," said the father, who had heard quite enough of his
daughter's words to know without asking, and who was more behind the
curtain than his wife, in some other respects. "I heard what this
school-girl muttered. She _cannot_ marry the man whom I intend she
_shall_ marry, and she has taken this opportunity, when she supposed I
was absent, to acquaint you with her determination."

"Not determination," said the mother, willing to smooth affairs as much
as possible--"say wish."

"No, mother, determination!" said the young girl, springing to her feet
with an energy which was really not an ordinary part of her
nature,--under the impression that now, if ever, was the time to give
utterance to her true sentiments. "Father used the right
word--determination! I cannot marry Boad Bancker, and I won't! There you
have it!"

There was nothing classic or even romantic in the young lady's mode of
expression, or the nickname which she bestowed upon her would-be lover;
but they were at least natural, which is something gained in this world
of pretences and deceptions.

"You won't? and why, I should like to know?" broke in the Judge, for the
moment surprised out of the violence that might have resulted, by the
very audacity of the declaration.

"Because he is hateful, and ugly, and I do not like him, and--" answered
Miss Emily, with a charming return to the system of the school-girl
which she had just been called by her father.

"Silence!" thundered Judge Owen, who had recovered from the blow and
thought that he had a refractory juryman or an insolent attorney to put
down. "Silence! I have had enough of this. John Boadley Bancker is the
man I have selected for your husband. He belongs to an excellent family,
has wealth enough to keep a wife in comfort and even luxury, and has
lately proved himself a true patriot by springing up at the call of the
President--" (Judge Owen had by this time forgotten his indignation, and
fancied himself for the moment addressing an immense assemblage at Union
Square or in the Park)--"