At length Rufus spoke again hesitatingly, "Father!" said he.
"Well!" returned Col. M., in a tone which indicated for him to proceed.
"I don't want to marry Florence Howard," said the young man, with a great gulp, as though it cost him a mighty effort to pronounce the words.
"Why not?" asked the father, apparently unheeding his son's emotion. "Don't you love the girl?"
"Love her!" repeated Rufus. "I don't know whether I do or not; but I am afraid of her."
"Afraid of a little, puny girl!" exclaimed Col. Malcome, in a towering rage, "I did not think you such a pitiful craven."
The young man seemed angered by his father's words, but made no retort.
"Why are you afraid of her?" inquired the colonel after a while.
"Because she looks so proud and stern upon me, and treats me with such scorn and contempt."
"O, never mind that!" said his father. "When she is once your wife trust me to lower her loftiness, and make her as meek and humble as you could wish. Let us go in now. How wildly this storm is driving! I hope it may clear before the hour for the marriage arrives." Thus speaking, the father and son entered the hall and sought their respective apartments.