"I can learn!"
"You are learned and love to mingle with great men. You are proud, and this is a poor old house!" She argued so earnestly that he could not refrain from smiling.
"I fancy, if the need come, I would get along with all these difficulties, without much regret. But this is idle speculation. In another month I shall be of age; then no one can claim legal authority over me or mine. I know there is great wealth to be accounted for, but have never known how much, or what restrictions are upon it. If it leaves me at liberty to marry Isabel, and she will give up this cruel resolve to abandon me, for her sake independence shall be welcome, if not, then I will answer your questions more promptly than you perhaps expect."
"That girl will never marry your mother's son—she has taken an oath against it."
"She shall marry me. Who can help it? Do we not love each other? If her proud spirit rejects the property, so be it—I care as little for gold as she does. As for that miserable oath, it is worthless as the wind, taken in a moment of romantic excitement. The angels do not register oaths like that."
"I say it again, Isabel Chester will not marry Mrs. Farnham's son," persisted aunt Hannah.
And she was right.
CHAPTER XLVI.
THE MOTHER'S FRAUD.
That solemn oath is on my soul,
Its weight is creeping through my life—
It binds me with a firm control,
I cannot—cannot be thy wife!