an issue. You will excuse me,
then, my dear niece, for speaking with a bluntness which, under other
circumstances, would be unpardonable. You have, I am certain, given
the subject of our last interview fair and serious consideration;
and I trust that you are now prepared with candour to lay your answer
before me. A few words will suffice; we perfectly understand one
another."

He paused; and I, though feeling that I stood upon a mine which might
in an instant explode, nevertheless answered with perfect composure:
"I must now, sir, make the same reply which I did upon the last
occasion, and I reiterate the declaration which I then made, that I
never can nor will, while life and reason remain, consent to a union
with my cousin Edward."

This announcement wrought no apparent change in Sir Arthur, except
that he became deadly, almost lividly pale. He seemed lost in dark
thought for a minute, and then, with a slight effort, said, "You have
answered me honestly and directly; and you say your resolution is
unchangeable; well, would it had been otherwise--would it had been
otherwise--but be it as it is; I am satisfied."

He gave me his hand--it was cold and damp as death; under an assumed
calmness, it was evident that he was fearfully agitated. He continued
to hold my hand with an almost painful pressure, while, as if
unconsciously, seeming to forget my presence, he muttered, "Strange,
strange, strange, indeed! fatuity, helpless fatuity!" there was here a
long pause. "Madness _indeed_ to strain a cable that is rotten to
the very heart; it must break--and then--all goes." There was again
a pause of some minutes, after which, suddenly changing his voice and
manner to one of wakeful alacrity, he exclaimed,

"Margaret, my son Edward shall plague you no more. He leaves this
country to-morrow for France; he shall speak no more upon this
subject--never, never more; whatever events depended upon your answer
must now take their own course; but as for this fruitless proposal, it
has been tried enough; it can be repeated no more."

At these words he coldly suffered my hand to drop, as if to express
his total abandonment of all his projected schemes of alliance; and
certainly the action, with the accompanying words, produced upon my
mind a more solemn and depressing effect than I believed possible to
have been caused by the course which I had determined to pursue; it
struck upon my heart with an awe and heaviness which _will_ accomp