“I will hear it.”
“Elsie’s parting words to me were, ‘Oh, mother, you love my father very dearly, do you not?’ I answered, ‘Yes.’ She replied, ‘Oh, if you love him, mother, win my pardon from him!’ Aaron, look on me. Father, forgive your child for loving her husband as much as her mother loves thee.”
“Alice,” he said, drawing her again to his bosom and kissing her, “this seals your full pardon; be content; for the rest, give me time.”
“Oh, if I could persuade you to forgive poor Elsie—who only needs her father’s pardon and blessing to be perfectly happy in her humble state.”
“Alice, if Elsie were before me, as you are, in all your beauty, perhaps I could not choose but be reconciled with her as with you, my lovely Alice.”
Alice was so unused to praise from him that these words and caresses were beginning to embarrass her. Blushing like a very girl, she withdrew herself from his arms, and sat down. Then, as fearing to have offended, she said:
“Do not think me ungrateful. Test my sincerity in any way you please.”
“In any way, Alice?” he asked significantly.
“Yes. Try me—test me.”
“Pause—think—in any way?”