the brain, which had terminated the existence of so many of his
ancestors.

More than ever he desired to see his motherless daughter well married
before he should be called away from her. So, one evening, he sent for
Sybil to come into his sitting-room, and when she obeyed his summons,
and came and sat down on a low ottoman beside his arm-chair, he said,
laying his hand lovingly on her black, curly head:

"My darling, I am very old, and may be taken from you any day, any hour,
and I would like to see you well married before I go."

"Dear father, don't talk so. You may live twenty years yet," answered
the daughter, with a blending of affectionate solicitude and angry
impatience in her tones and looks, for Sybil was very fond of the old
man, and also very intolerant of unpleasant subjects.

"Well, well, my dear, since you prefer it, I will live twenty years
longer to please you--_if I can_. But whether I live or die, my
daughter, I wish to see you well married."

"Ah, father, why can you not leave me free?"

"Because, my darling, if anything should happen to me, you would be left
utterly without protection; your hand would become the aim of every
adventurer in the county; you would become the prey of some one among
them who would squander your fortune, abuse your person, and break your
heart."

"You know very well, father, that I should break such a villain's head
first. _I_ a victim--_I_ the prey of a fortune-hunter, or the slave of a
brute! I look as if I was likely to be--do I not? Father, you insult
your daughter by the thought," exclaimed Sybil, with flushing cheeks and
flashing eyes.

"There, there, my dear! don't flame up!" said the old man, laying his
hand upon the fiery creature's head; "be quiet as you can, Sybil--I
cannot bear excitement now, child."

"Forgive me, dear father, and forbear, if you love me, from such talk as
this. I never could become an ill-used, suffering, snivelling wife. I
_detest_ the picture as I utterly despise all weak and whimpering women.
I have no sympathy whatever for your abused wives--even for your
dethroned or beheaded queens. Why should a wife permit herself to be
abused, or a queen suffer herself to be dethroned or beheaded, without
first having done something to redeem herself from the contemptible role
of a victim, even if it was to change it for the awful one of
criminal--"

"--Hush, Sybil, hush! You know not what you say. The Saviour of the
world--"

"----Was