“Oh, Henry; and marry under my father's curse!”
“He could not curse you, if he love you half as well as I do; and if he does not, why sacrifice me, and perhaps my life, to him?”
“Henry, for pity's sake, think of some other way. Why this violent haste to get rich? Have a little patience. Mr. Raby will not always be abroad. Oh, pray give up Mr. Bolt, and go quietly on at peace with these dreadful Trades. You know I'll wait all my life for you. I will implore papa to let you visit me oftener. I will do all a faithful, loving girl can do to comfort you.”
“Ay,” said Henry, bitterly, “you will do anything but the one thing I ask.”
“Yes, anything but defy my father. He is father and mother both to me. How unfortunate we both are! If you knew what it costs me to deny you anything, if you knew how I long to follow you round the world—”
She choked with emotion, and seemed on the point of yielding, after all.
But he said, bitterly, “You long to follow me round the world, and you won't go a twelve-days' voyage with me to save my life. Ah, it is always so. You don't love me as poor Jael Dence loves me. She saved my life without my asking her; but you won't do it when I implore you.”
“Henry, my own darling, if any woman on earth loves you better than I do, for God's sake marry her, and let me die to prove I loved you a little.”
“Very well,” said he, grinding his teeth. “Next week I leave this place with a wife. I give you the first offer, because I love you. I shall give Jael the second, because she loves me.”
So then he flung out of the room, and left Grace Carden half fainting on the sofa, and drowned in tears.