"Yes, of course! What else would I speak of?"
"It's all true! quite true--worse luck!"
"He has refused to sanction the engagement?"
"Yes. I received a letter from him, in which he accuses me of acting shamefully in winning his daughter's heart. Oh!" cried, Archie, clenching his hands, "if he was not her father! You never saw such a letter--a cruel, wicked letter! If he was not her father I would make him apologise for its insolence."
"Oh," said Mrs. Belswin, cruelly. "So, being her father, you are going to sit quietly down under this insult."
"What can I do?"
"Do! Oh, if I only were a man! Do! Why, marry Kaituna in spite of him. Why don't you see Kaituna and urge her to marry you at once?"
"I have done so, and she refuses to disobey her father."
"Good heavens!" thought Mrs. Belswin savagely, "the girl is no daughter of mine to allow herself thus to be robbed of the man she professes to love."
She kept this sentiment to herself, however, and only said abruptly--