"_only_ four months, and then--oh, God!"

"Then your property will be sold according to law," said the notary,
dryly, finishing the sentence. "I can well understand, sir, that this is
a painful prospect; but, as it is a decree of fate that no one can
control, you have nothing to do but prepare to receive the blow. Let me
offer to sell your estate as if you 'were leaving the country.' By that
means you will escape the mortification of a forced sale."

For several moments Monsieur De Vlierbeck remained silent, his face
buried in his hands, as if crushed by the notary's advice and
callousness. At length he replied, calmly but humbly,--

"Your counsel is, perhaps, wise and generous; yet I will not follow it.
You know that all my sacrifices, my painful life, my constant agony,
have been patiently endured for the sake of my only child. You alone
know that all I do has but, one purpose,--a purpose which I hold sacred.
I have reason to believe that God is about granting the earnest prayer I
have daily offered for ten years. My daughter is beloved by a rich
gentleman, whose character I think I may confide in, and his family
appears to sympathize in all his views. _Four months!_ it is but a short
time, alas! yet, ought I, by anticipating the legal period of a sale, to
destroy all my fond hopes? Ought I instantly to welcome misery for
myself and my child when I see the chance of sure relief from all we
have suffered?"

"Then you want to _deceive_ these people, whoever they may be? Do you
not suppose that by such a course of conduct you may make your daughter
still more wretched?"

At the word "_deceive_" the poor gentleman winced as if stung by an
adder, while a nervous thrill ran through his limbs and suffused his
face with a blush of shame.

"_Deceive!_" echoed he, bitterly; "oh, no! but I dare not, by a rash
avowal of my want, stifle the love that is growing up mutually. Whenever
it becomes necessary to be decided, I will make a loyal disclosure of my
condition. If the declaration ruin my hopes I will follow your advice. I
will sell all I have; I will quit the country and seek in some foreign
land to maintain myself and my beloved child by teaching." He stopped
for a moment, as if swallowing his grief, and then continued, in a lower
tone, half speaking to himself, "And, yet, did I not promise my dear
wife on her death-bed--did I not promise it on the holy cross--that our
child should not undergo such a fate? Ten years of