"I can not marry you."

"I won't take 'no' unless you say with it, 'I never loved you; I never
can love you.'"

"Look at my father, Philip; he is almost falling. His face is crimson. I
must go to him. God bless you!"

She took his hand, and absolutely, before the squire's horrified eyes,
raised it to her lips, then flew lightly down the path, and joined the
old man.

"Is anything wrong, father? How dreadful you look!"

"You--you have accepted the fellow! You have deserted me; I saw you kiss
his hand. Fah! it makes me sick. You've accepted him, and I am ruined!"

"On the contrary, I have refused Philip. That kiss was like one we give
to the dead. Don't excite yourself; come into the house. I am yours
absolutely from this time out."

"Hum--haw--you gave me an awful fright, I can tell you." The squire
breathed more freely. "You set that little Fluff on to begin it, and you
ended it. I won't be the better of this for some time. Yes, let me lean
on you, Frances; it's a comfort to feel I'm not without a daughter. Oh,
it would have been a monstrous thing had you deserted me! Did I not rear
you, and bring you up? But in cases of the affections--I mean in cases
of those paltry passions, women are so weak."

"But not your daughter, Frances Kane. I, for your sake, have been
strong. Now, if you please, we will drop the subject; I will not discuss
it further. You had better come into the house, father, until you get
cool."

"You had a letter this morning, Frances--from Spens, was it not?"

"Oh, yes; I had forgotten; your creditors will accept my terms for the
present. I must drive over to Arden this afternoon, and arrange what day
I go there."

"I shall miss you considerably, Frances. It's a great pity you couldn't
arrange to come home to sleep; you might see to my comforts then by
rising a little earlier in the morning. I wish, my dear, you would
propose it to Mrs. Carnegie; if she is a woman of any consideration she
will see how impossible it is that I should be left altogether."

"I can not do that, father. Even you must pay a certain price for a
certain good thing. You do not wish to leave the Firs, but you can not
keep both the Firs and me. I will come and see you constantly, but my
time from this out belongs absolutely to Mrs. Carnegie. She gives me an
unusually large salary, and, being her servant, I must endeavor in all
particulars to please her, and must devote my time to her to a certain
extent day and night