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e foot of the falls!" "So do I with all my heart!--oh, no, I don't either!--I--I don't know what I am talking about! My head is wild!" said Odalite, putting her hand to her forehead. Le looked at her wistfully. "An old friend of your mother, eh?" "Yes." "Rich? Of high rank?" "I--I believe so." "Where is the man?" "He is here at Mondreer, where he has been staying ever since he came down with us at my father's invitation from Niagara." "And you are going to marry him?" "Oh, yes," replied Odalite, with a heartrending sigh. "It cannot be helped. It is all settled." "I see how it is! A friend of your mother, rich, and of high position; and so they have yielded to the temptation of wealth and rank, and they have forced or coaxed you into compliance with their wishes in consenting to this dishonorable marriage! I did not think so of my uncle and aunt. But this cannot, shall not go on! I shall insist upon my prior rights. Take heart, my precious. I shall not let them destroy our happiness by parting us. No, not for all the wealth and rank in the world!" "Oh, Le! Le! you mistake! you mistake! Nobody forced me! Nobody persuaded me! I am going to marry Col. Anglesea of my own free will! Indeed I am! Oh, Le! Le!" wailed the unhappy girl. The youth stared at her in speechless astonishment and bitter misery. "Oh! don't look so, Le!--don't look so! I am not worth it, Le! Indeed I am not!" "Do I understand you to say that you break your engagement to me, and marry this foreigner, of your own free, unbiased will?" he asked, at last, in cold, hard, restrained tones. "Yes, yes, yes! that is what I am going to do!" replied Odalite, with the firmness of despair. "Then you are false to me--to me, your lover, who had never a thought that was false to you!--to me, your mate of many years!--to me, your almost husband!" cried the youth, losing all self-command in the sharpness of his pain, and bursting into a tempest of grief and rage, and launching fierce reproaches upon her. She raised her hands in piteous deprecation, and then held them up before her head as if to shield it from the storm. But as he flashed the lightnings of scorn and hurled the thunder of condemnation upon her, she cowered lower and lower, holding by the bench on which she sat, until at length, utterly overwhelmed, she sank to the ground, rolled over, and lay with her face downward on the sand at his feet. But she uttered no w
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