ce you are! That is a singular acknowledgment, Lucy, I think."

"It is truth, sir, notwithstanding. I was anxious to see him, that I
might acquaint him with the change that has taken place in my unhappy
destiny. If I had not seen him, I should have asked your permission to
write to him."

"Which I would not have given."

"I would have submitted my letter to you, sir."

"Even so; I would not have consented."

"Well, then, sir, as truth and honor demanded that act from me, I would
haye sent it without your consent. Excuse me for saying this, papa; but
you need not be told that there are some peculiar cases where duty to a
parent must yield to truth and honor."

"Some peculiar cases! On the contrary, the cases you speak of are the
general rule, my girl--the general rule--and rational obedience to
a parent the exception. Where is there a case--and there are
millions--where a parent's wish and will are set at naught and
scorned, in which the same argument is not used? I do not relish these
discussions, however. What I wish to impress upon you is this--you must
see this fellow no more."

Lucy's temples were immediately in a blaze. "Are you aware, papa, that
you insult and degrade your daughter, by applying such a term to him?
If you will not spare him, sir, spare me; for I assure you that I feel
anything said against him with ten times more emotion than if it were
uttered against myself."

"Well, well; he's a fine fellow, a gentleman, a lord; but, be he what he
may, you must see him no more."

"It is not my intention, papa, to see him again."

"You must not write to him."

"It will not be necessary."

"But you must not."

"Well, then, I shall not."

"Nor receive kis letters."

"Nor receive his letters, knowing them to be his."

"You promise all this?"

"I do, sir, faithfully. I hope you are now satisfied, papa?"

"I am, Lucy--I am. You are not so bad a girl as I sus--no, you are a
very good girl; and when I see you the Countess of Cullamore, I shall
not have a single wish un-gratified."

Lucy, indeed, poor girl, was well and vigilantly guarded. No
communication, whether written or otherwise, was permitted to reach
her; nor, if she had been lodged in the deepest dungeon in Europe, and
secured by the strongest bolts that ever enclosed a prisoner, could she
have been more rigidly excluded from all intercourse, her father's and
her maid's only excepted.

Her lover, on receiving the documents so often al