one who once influenced your feelings, that you have been thrown in
unexpected contact with him; he has not--he has not dared-----'

'Say nothing harshly of him,' said Miss Temple wildly; 'I will not bear
it, even from you.'

'My daughter!'

'Ay! your daughter, but still a woman. Do I murmur? Do I complain? Have
I urged you to compromise your honour? I am ready for the sacrifice. My
conduct is yours, but my feelings are my own.'

'Sacrifice, Henrietta! What sacrifice? I have heard only of your
happiness; I have thought only of your happiness. This is a strange
return.'

'Father, forget what you have seen; forgive what I have said. But let
this subject drop for ever.'

'It cannot drop here. Captain Armine prefers his suit?' continued Mr.
Temple, in a tone of stern enquiry.

'What if he did? He has a right to do so.'

'As good a right as he had before. You are rich now, Henrietta, and he
perhaps would be faithful.'

'O Ferdinand!' exclaimed Miss Temple, lifting, up her hands and eyes to
heaven, 'and you must endure even this!'

'Henrietta,' said Mr. Temple in a voice of affected calmness, as he
seated himself by her side, 'listen to me: I am not a harsh parent; you
cannot upbraid me with insensibility to your feelings. They have ever
engrossed my thought and care; and how to gratify, and when necessary
how to soothe them, has long been the principal occupation of my life.
If you have known misery, girl, you made that misery yourself. It
was not I that involved you in secret engagements and clandestine
correspondence; it was not I that made you, you, my daughter, on whom
I have lavished all the solicitude of long years, the dupe of the first
calculating libertine who dared to trifle with your affections, and
betray your heart.'

''Tis false,' exclaimed Miss Temple, interrupting him; 'he is as true
and pure as I am; more, much more,' she added, in a voice of anguish.

'No doubt he has convinced you of it,' said Mr. Temple, with a laughing
sneer. 'Now, mark me,' he continued, resuming his calm tone, 'you
interrupted me; listen to me. You are the betrothed bride of Lord
Montfort; Lord Montfort, my friend, the man I love most in the world;
the most generous, the most noble, the most virtuous, the most gifted of
human beings. You gave him your hand freely, under circumstances which,
even if he did not possess every quality that ought to secure the
affection of a woman, should bind you to him with an unswerving fa