“Pray, what has Mr. Van Hoosen to do with Rose?”
“He wishes to marry her. He wishes to have the right to watch over and protect her.”
“Mr. Van Hoosen marry Rose! What an idea! Rose is exceedingly angry at him. She says he interfered with her in the most unwarrantable manner, and frightened her until she has been quite sick from the shock.”
“He did well to frighten her. On that awful road leading down, and down, nothing but a fright will arrest attention. If Rose will not put herself in a loving husband’s care, then we will shut this house and go to Woodsome to-morrow night.”
“Such nonsense!”
“I say, we will leave New York to-morrow night for Woodsome, or else we will take the next steamer for Europe. There are these two alternatives; these two, and no other.”
“And you will permit your daughter to marry the son of the mason who built our house?”
“The mason who built our house is of my own kindred. He is as fine a gentleman as ever I met. He is honorable and well cultured; and his son, Harry says—and he knows him well—is worthy of his father.”
“Nevertheless, Rose will not marry him. And as for breaking up the house now, it is not to be thought 155 of. People will say that we had been compelled to do so, either by Rose’s misconduct or else by our own poverty. It is simply ruinous to our social standing to leave the city now.”
“If Rose is not inclined to marry Mr. Van Hoosen, we shall leave the city to-morrow evening. For I do not believe I shall be able to afford the European alternative. At any rate, not for a few weeks; and those few weeks we must spend in Woodsome.”