“Thank you.”
“What next?”
“I am not a man to be repulsed. I pressed my suit with some earnest persistency.”
“And then?”
“She threatened to appeal to her father for protection against me.”
“Poor Odalite! Poor child!” murmured the unhappy mother.
“Poor idiot!” brutally exclaimed the man. “See here, madam, I shall insist upon this marriage. If she is permitted to appeal to her father at this point I shall be disappointed, but you will be lost. You must see the girl at once, before the return of her father this evening. You must induce her to accept me for her husband. She must be made to do so, or pretend to do so, willingly, joyfully. You know best what arguments to use with her. You must also persuade your husband to consent to the marriage, for the sake of his dear daughter’s happiness, you understand.”
“For the sake of his dear daughter’s ‘happiness’!” moaned Elfrida Force, in mournful irony.
“Yes. I repeat it. For the sake of her happiness. How, under existing circumstances, should her happiness be best preserved, do you think? By marrying that young naval officer, and seeing, as a consequence, the ruin and dishonor of her whole family, and, bitterest of all, being made to feel the shame and regret of her own young husband for having married her, the daughter of——”
“Wretch! hold your tongue!” exclaimed Elfrida Force, clasping her head with both hands.