“I am only too easily understood,” he said. “The Marquess di Rocco, who holds my very existence in the hollow of his hand, renews his suit at this moment, and peremptorily.”
“I cannot marry him.”
“Wait, before you condemn me, me, your father, to worse than death. I must be plain with you, Yolande, in this terrible crisis. I do not plead my word to him, although you as a de France should appreciate its inviolability. It is associated with other pledges which, in default of your consent, would mean my instant ruin. I owe him money, Yolande, which it is impossible for me to repay—money borrowed chiefly to enable you, my daughter, to maintain the condition which is your due. You alone have it in your power to liquidate that debt.”
She did not speak. She could not, indeed. But he gathered a little confidence from her silence.
“And after all,” he said, with a sickly smile, “one can conceive a less attractive way out of an impasse. Riches, position, a princely jointure, an alliance with the most powerful house in Savoy, whereby our own would be enabled to recover its lost influence—are these small considerations to be discarded for a personal sentiment, which a month of such devotion would cure?”
She shuddered, repeating, “I cannot marry him.”
“On the other side,” he hurried on, ignoring her words desperately, “utter material ruin and, what is worse to me, my word, my honour foresworn. Listen, Yolande. In that very hour when you become, if you will become, his wife, he settles his entire property upon you by will. You will be the most influential woman in the duchy, a force for the good which is so dear to your heart. Is to put this in your power the act of a libertine, or of one rather who yearns to find his redemption at the hands of a virtue which he holds so inestimably dear?”
She cried out at last, rising from her seat and staggering as if she were blind.
“Father! father! give me time at least!”
Even in her despair she knew that it were useless to plead how her heart, her soul were engaged elsewhere. The shock, at this pass, would have driven him to a very frenzy of cruelty. As it was, he leapt to the little concession implied in her appeal, and sought to improve upon it instantly.