of rage.

"I will speak out," said she, resolutely. "The courage I now feel
may, perhaps, never return to me. There is nothing humiliating in our
position, save what we owe to ourselves; there is no meanness in our
rank in life, save when we are ashamed of it! Our efforts to be what we
were not born to be, what we ought not to be, what we cannot be,--these
may, indeed, make us despicable and ridiculous, for there are things in
this world, father, that not even gold can buy."

"By Heaven, that is not true!" said he, fiercely. "There never yet was
that in rank, honor, and distinction that was not ticketed with its own
price! Our haughtiest nobility--the proudest duke in the land--knows
well what his alliance with a plebeian order has done for him. Look
about you, girl. Who are these marchionesses, these countesses,
who sweep past us in their pride? The daughters of men of my own
station,--the wealthy traders of the country--"

"And what is their position, father? A living lie. What is their haughty
carriage? The assumption of a state they were not born to,--the insolent
pretension to despise all amidst which they passed their youth, their
earliest friendships, their purest, best days. Let them, on the other
hand, cling to these; let them love what has grown into their natures
from infancy,--the home, the companions of their happy childhood,--and
see how the world will scoff at their vulgarity, their innate
degeneracy, their low-born habits: vulgar if generous, vulgar when
saving; their costly tastes a reproach, their parsimony a sneer."

There was a passionate energy in her tone and manner, which, heightening
the expression of her handsome features, made her actually beautiful;
and her father half forgot the opposition to his opinions, in his
admiration of her. As he still gazed at her, the sharp sound of a
horse's canter was heard behind them; and, on turning round, they saw
advancing towards them a young man, mounted on a blood horse, which he
rode with all the careless ease of one accustomed to the saddle; his
feet dangling loosely out of the stirrups, and one hand thurst into the
pocket of his shooting-jacket.

"Stand where you are!" he cried, as the father and daughter were about
to move aside, and give him room to pass; and immediately after he
rushed his horse at the huge trunk of a fallen beech-tree, and cleared
it with a spring.

"He 'll be perfect at timber, when he gets a little cooler in temper,"
said