"What right had you to wish or protest?"
"The self-same right that you have to drive me from your daughter. You did not heed my wishes, why expect me to prove more delicate?"
"Because I can enforce what I wish, and you could not."
"How?"
"By asking Mr. Hepworth Closs to leave Oakhurst at once, and by providing against all chance of his coming here again."
Closs turned very white, and his hand clenched and unclenched itself with passionate force.
"My lord, this is a cruel insult, which I have not deserved!"
All at once the earl turned, with some show of feeling, and looked Hepworth steadily in the face.
"Hepworth Closs, listen to me. If I seem cruel and unmanly, it is because I wish to be kind. The hand which sweeps a moth from its circling around a candle, must seem very cruel to the poor insect. I tell you, fairly, Hepworth Closs, it is not so much pride of birth or personal dislike that prompts me to deny my daughter to you. But she is heiress in entail to the Carset title and Houghton Castle, a noble title, without support, unless the old countess makes her heiress, by will, of her personal estates. By marrying your sister, I mortally offended this old lady. Rachael has been, from first to last, the special object of her dislike. Lady Clara has added to this by refusing to visit Houghton unless her stepmother is received there also. This quarrel may throw one of the richest inheritances in England out of my family, and all from my unfortunate marriage."
"Your unfortunate marriage!" exclaimed Closs, hotly.