"'You are not going to the ball, Hermione.'
"Struck as by a blow, the more severely that it was wholly unexpected, I gasped:
"'Not going to the ball when you know what depends upon it? Do you not like Dr. Sellick, father?'
"He mumbled something between his lips, and advancing to the desk, took up the letter which he thus knew I had read, and ostentatiously folded it.
"'I like Dr. Sellick well enough,' was his reply, 'but I do not approve of balls, and desire you to keep away from them.'
"'But you said we might go,' I persisted, suspecting nothing, seeing nothing in this but a parent's unreasonable and arbitrary display of power. 'Why have you changed your mind? Is it because Dr. Sellick has fixed upon that time for making me the offer of his hand?'
"'Perhaps,' his dry lips said.
"Angry as I had never been in all my life, I tried to speak, and could not. Had I escaped suicide to have my hopes flung in this wanton way again to the ground, and for no reason that I or any one else could see?'
"'But you acknowledge,' I managed at last to stammer, 'that you like him.'
"'That is not saying I want him for a son-in-law.'