The Black Baronet; or, The Chronicles Of Ballytrain

ood to urge his Daughter into

ion of all the fiercer and darker passions was natural to such a countenance as his; but even to imagine such a one lit up with mirth, was to conceive an image so grotesque and ridiculous, that the firmest gravity must give way before it. His frown was a thing perfectly intelligible, but to witness his smile, or rather his effort at one, was to witness an unnatural phenomenon of the most awful kind, and little short of a prodigy. If one could suppose the sun giving a melancholy and lugubrious grin through the darkness of a t

very properly conjectured, from his appearance, that some deep design was concealed under it. Anxious, therefore, to avoid a prolonged dialogue, and feeling, besides,

agreeable ha

olish girl, would it not have been better to have placed confidence in me with respec

s some one whose happiness m

oolish, naughty girl, don't you know that you are to inherit my wealth and proper

ject of ambition-no bitter recollection corroding your heart? Does the untimely loss of my young brother, who would have represented and sustained your

lous than to hear a girl like you, that ought to ha

e is a nobleman-oh, how often is that honorable name prostituted!-and could give me a title, don't you se

urself, Lucy-have, or pretend to have-poor fools-a horror of marrying those they don't love; and I am aware, besides, that a man might as well attempt to make a str

papa. May I ask, what has

f the lady, whilst the gentleman is at once, if I may say so, indifferent and indignant. By and by, however, they become tired of this. The husband, who, as well as the wife, we shall suppose, has a strong spice of the devil in him, begins to entertain a kind of diabolical sympathy for the fire and temper she displays; while she, on the other hand, comes by degrees to admire in him that which she is conscious of possessing herself, that is to sa

apa; your picture is admirable;

But is not this much more agreeable and animated than the sweet dalliance of a sugar-plum life,

suppose you were t

" he replie

s, two minds, two souls, in pure and mutual affection, when that affection is founded upon something more durable than m

e such things as deceit, dissimul

l form of domestic affection. The very consciousness, I should suppose, that our destinies, our hopes, our objects, our cares-in short, our joys and sorrows, are identical and mutual, to be shared with and by each other, and that all those delightful interchanges of a thousand nameless offices of tenderness that spring up from the on-going business of our own peculiar life-these alone, I can very well imagine, would constitute an enjoyment far higher, purer, holier, than mere romantic love. Then, papa, surely we are not to live solely for ourselves. There are the miseries and wants of others to be lessened or relieved, calamity to be mitigated, the pale and throbbing brow

k of treacle here and there for the shading," and, as he spoke, he committed another

and curtail the interview, "as I said, I trust something a

ut, my dear, surely that is no reason why you should all at once grow so pale! I almost think that you have contracted a habit of becoming pale. I observed it this morning-I observe it now; but, after all, perhaps it

om, approached her, and in deep, earnest, and what he intend

urlay, he has

th-regard to her paleness now. In fact, she blushed deeply at the falsehood he attempted to impose upon her. The whole t

ou allude, si

you bowed so graciously, and, le

know, sir, what

; as you said, yourself, it should not be sir and madam between you and me. You are all I have in the world-my only child, and if I appear harsh to y

t, but only for a moment, for

lude to has told you all, what is t

cerity, and to have your version as well as his. He app

honor, papa, how can yo

man may be mistaken in the estimate he forms of another in a fi

nything be necessary to make that father the friend of his only child? I know not how to reply to you, sir; you have placed me in a positi

in such good-humor? Take courage. You will find me more

rely with shame, for her heart was filled with such an indignant and oppressive s

our lover yonder. Confess; but don't wee

nough that I have already confessed to you that my affections are engaged. I will now add what perhaps I ought to have added before, that this was with the sa

was foolish, madam, and indiscreet, and has made you wicked-trained you up to hypocrisy, falsehood, and disobedience. Yes, madam,

tions upon the memory of her mother, whilst her tears burst out a

a liar, am I? Oh,

s it not ten thousand times more so to defend the dead? Shall a daughter hear with acquiescence the memory of a mother, who would have died for her, loaded with obloquy and falsehood? No, sir! Menace and abuse myself as much as you wish, but I tell you, that while I have life and the power of speech

liar-a wanton pleasure

ce by a series of false pretences, and a relation of circumstances that were utterly without foundation? All this, however, though inexpressibly painful to me as your daughter, I could overlook without one word of reply; but I never will allow you to cast foul and cowardly reproach upon the memory of the best of mothers-upon the memory of a wife of whom, father, yo

now having relapsed into all his d

ures with you, the severest, the harshest, that I can devise, or I shall I break that stubborn will of yours. Do not imagine for one moment

anything, provided only you will forb

r own room, where she indulged

r's mind, her indomitable love of truth, and the beautiful and undying tenderness with which her affection brooded over the memory of her mother. Selfishness, however, and that low ambition which places human happiness in the enjoyment of wealth, and honors, and empty titles, had so completely blinded him to the virtues of his daughter, and to the sacred character of his own duties as a father, bound by the first principles of nature to promote her happiness, without corrupting her virtues, or weakening her moral impressions-we say these things had so blinded him, and hardened his heart against all the purer duties and responsibilities of life, that he looked upon his daughter as a hardened, disobedient girl, dead to the influence of his own good-the ambition of the world-and insensible to the dignified pos