terly consume me, unless--(ough! ough!
ough!)"

Here he was well-nigh choked, and Sir Giles had to come to his
assistance.

"What my worthy friend and partner would declare, if his cough permitted
him, fair Mistress Aveline," urged the extortioner, "is that he places
his life and fortune at your disposal. His desires are all centred in
you, and it rests with you to make him the happiest or most miserable of
mankind. Speak I not your sentiments, Sir Francis?"

"In every particular, good Sir Giles," replied the other, as soon as he
could recover utterance. "And now, most adorable damsel, what say you in
answer? You are too gentle, I am sure, to condemn your slave to endless
tortures. Nay, motion me not to rise. I have that to say will disarm
your frowns, and turn them into smiles of approval and assent. (O, this
accursed rheumatism!" he muttered to himself, "I shall never be able to
get up unaided!) I love you, incomparable creature--love you to
distraction; and as your beauty has inflicted such desperate wounds upon
my heart, so I am sure your gentleness will not fail to cure them.
Devotion like mine must meet its reward. Your answer, divinest creature!
and let it be favourable to my hopes, I conjure you!"

"I have no other answer to give," replied Aveline, coldly, and with an
offended look, "except such as any maiden, thus unwarrantably and
unseasonably importuned, would make. Your addresses are utterly
distasteful to me, and I pray you to desist them. If you have any real
wish to oblige me, you will at once free me from your presence."

"Your hand, Sir Giles--your hand!" cried the old usurer, raising
himself to his feet with difficulty, "So, you are not to be moved by my
sufferings--by my prayers, cruel and proud beauty?" he continued,
regarding her with a mortified and spiteful look. "You are
inflexible--eh?"

"Utterly so," she replied.

"Anthony Rocke!" cried Dame Sherborne, "show the gentlemen to the
door--and bolt it upon them," she added, in a lower tone.

"Not so fast, Madam--not so fast!" exclaimed Sir Francis. "We will not
trouble old Anthony just yet. Though his fair young mistress is
indisposed to listen to the pleadings of love, it follows not she will
be equally insensible to the controlling power of her father's delegated
authority. Her hand must be mine, either freely, or by compulsion. Let
her know on what grounds I claim it, Sir Giles."

"Your claim cannot be resisted, Sir Francis," rejoined