“Ah, father, why can you not leave me free?”
“Because, my darling, if anything should happen to me, you would be left utterly without protection; your hand would become the aim of every adventurer in the county; you would become the prey of some one among them who would squander your fortune, abuse your person, and break your heart.”
“You know very well, father, that I should break such a villain’s head first. I a victim—I the prey of a fortune-hunter, or the slave of a brute! I look as if I was likely to be—do I not? Father, you insult your daughter by the thought,” exclaimed Sybil, with flushing cheeks and flashing eyes.
“There, there, my dear! don’t flame up!” said the old man, laying his hand upon the fiery creature’s head; “be quiet as you can, Sybil—I cannot bear excitement now, child.”
“Forgive me, dear father, and forbear, if you love me, from such talk as this. I never could become an ill-used, suffering, snivelling wife. I detest the picture as I utterly despise all weak and whimpering women. I have no sympathy whatever for your abused wives—even for your dethroned or beheaded queens. Why should a wife permit herself to be abused, or a queen suffer herself to be dethroned or beheaded, without first having done something to redeem herself from the contemptible role of a victim, even if it was to change it for the awful one of criminal—”
“—Hush, Sybil, hush! You know not what you say. The Saviour of the world—”
“——Was a divine martyr, father,” said Sybil, reverently bowing her head—“was a divine martyr, not a victim. All who suffer and die in a great cause are martyrs; but those who suffer and die for nothing but of their own weakness are victims, with whom I have no sympathy. I never could be a victim, father.”
“Heaven help you, Sybil!”
“You need not fear for me, father. I can take care of myself as well as if I were a son, instead of a daughter of the House of Berners,” said Sybil, haughtily.
“You may be able to protect yourself from all others, but can you always protect yourself from yourself?” sighed the old man.