"I do not say she is easily swayed, but she is simple and confiding. She must have time to question her heart."
"What is it you demand of me?"
"That you should not woo her hastily. I am her father and her natural guardian. It would not be difficult for me to keep you and her apart."
"Do you contemplate an act so cruel?"
"Not at the present moment seriously, but it has suggested itself to me as the best safeguard I could adopt to save an inexperienced child from possible unhappiness."
"She would suffer."
"Less now than at some future time, when what is at present a transient feeling may become a faith, from which to tear her then would be to tear her heartstrings. You are, or would be, her lover; I am her father. Were you in my place and I in yours, you would act towards me as I am acting towards you. I repeat, you are a stranger among us; you must give us time to know more of you before I can take you by the hand and welcome you as a son. You must give my daughter time to know more of you before you ask her to take the most important step in a woman's life. It is in my power to-day to make my conditions absolute, and I intend to use my power.
"You require a guarantee from me?" I said.
"Yes."
"And if I give it, will it be the means of separating me from Lauretta?"