know how little one gains by indulging affection,--if I did
n't know, besides, how you yourself will think of all this some ten or
twelve years hence, I could n't have the heart for it."

"And--must--it--be?" faltered she out, in a broken accent.

Davis threw his arm around her, and, pressing her to him, sobbed
bitterly. "There, there," cried he, "go in,--go in, child; go to bed,
and get some sleep." And with this he turned quickly away and left her.

CHAPTER X. A RIDE TO NEUWIED

Long before Lizzy had composed herself to sleep--for her heart was torn
by a first sorrow, and she lay restless and fevered--her father, mounted
on a post-horse, was riding away towards the Rhine. He had desired that
the reply to his telegraphic message should be addressed to him at the
post-office of Neuwied, and thither he was now bent. It is a strange
thing, that when the affections of men of this stamp are deeply
moved,--when their sensibilities, long dulled and hardened by the
rubs of life, are once evoked,--the feelings excited are less those of
gentleness and tenderness than an almost savage desire for some personal
conflict. Urging his horse to full speed, Davis spared neither whip nor
spur. Alone upon that solitary road, he asked himself aloud if he were
less alone in the broad, bleak world? "Is not the 'field' against
me wherever I go? I never heard of the fellow that had not some
'moorings'--some anchorage--except myself." But a brief hour ago and
there was one who loved him with all her heart,--who saw, or fancied she
saw, a rich mine of generous qualities in his rough manners and blunt
address,--who pictured to her mind what such a nature might have been
under happier circumstances and with better culture. "And now," cried
he, aloud,--"now she knows me for what I am, how will she bear this?
Will she sink under it, will it crush her, or has she enough of my own
blood in her veins to meet it courageously? Oh! if she only knew the
world as I do,--what a mean coward it is, how it bullies the weak and
truckles to the strong, how it frowns down the timid and simpers to the
sturdy! Every man--ay, and every woman--can sell his life dearly; and
strange it is, one only learns the value of this secret too late. Let
a fellow start with it, and see what it does for him. _I_ went at them
single-handed; _I_ went down all alone into the ring, and have they
beaten _me?_ I had no honorable or right honorable friends to pick _me_
out of a s