ver the writer may be,
the lady, whoever she may be, had refused him."

"You cannot believe that the wretch had the impudence to make my
daughter--the heiress of--at least--What! make my daughter an offer!
She would at once have acquainted me with the fact, that he might
receive suitable chastisement. Let me look at the stuff again."

"It is quite possible," said Fergus, "it may be only a poem some
friend has copied for her from a newspaper."

While he spoke, the laird was reading the lines, and persuading
himself he understood them. With sudden resolve, the paper held
torch-like in front of him, he strode into the next room, where
Ginevra sat.

"Do you tell me," he said fiercely, "that you have so far forgotten
all dignity and propriety as to give a dirty cow-boy the
encouragement to make you an offer of marriage? The very notion
sets my blood boiling. You will make me hate you,
you--you--unworthy creature!"

Ginevra had turned white, but looking him straight in the face, she
answered,

"If that is a letter for me, you know I have not read it."

"There! see for yourself.--Poetry!" He uttered the word with
contempt inexpressible.

She took the verses from his hand and read them. Even with her
father standing there, watching her like an inquisitor, she could
not help the tears coming in her eyes as she read.

"There is no such thing here, papa," she said. "They are only
verses--bidding me good-bye."

"And what right has any such fellow to bid my daughter good-bye?
Explain that to me, if you please. Of course I have been for many
years aware of your love of low company, but I had hoped as you grew
older you would learn manners: modesty would have been too much to
look for.--If you had nothing to be ashamed of, why did you not tell
me of the unpleasant affair? Is not your father your best friend?"

"Why should I make both him and you uncomfortable, papa--when there
was not going to be anything more of it?"

"Why then do you go hankering after him still, and refusing Mr.
Duff? It is true he is not exactly a gentleman by birth, but he is
such by education, by manners, by position, by influence."

"Papa, I have already told Mr. Duff, as plainly as I could without
being rude, that I would never let him talk to me so. What lady
would refuse Donal Grant and listen to him!"

"You are a bold, insolent hussey!" cried her father in fresh rage
and leaving the room, rejoined Fergus.

They sat silent