"And will you obey him?"
"No!" She drew herself up proudly. "I love Rupert more than myself, and if he will marry me I am ready to be his wife at any moment."
"Fool! Fool!" growled her father savagely.
"What do you say, Hendle?" inquired the vicar calmly.
"I wish to marry Dorinda, as I love her dearly," answered the Squire, who was pale but composed; "but if this will is proved to be legal I may lose all, and I can't ask Dorinda to share a life of poverty with me."
"I don't care for your poverty," cried the girl, impetuously throwing her arms round her lover's neck. "I would rather have a crust with you than stay with my father in luxury."
"But I don't think it will be necessary for you to be reduced to a crust, Dorinda," smiled the vicar. "After all, considering the circumstances of the case and that Hendle is not to blame, surely your father will give you half the income."
"Two thousand pounds," said Mallien derisively. "I'm not such a fool. I shan't give Rupert a single penny, and if Dorinda marries him without my consent, which she will never get, she must be prepared to starve."
"Dorinda will never starve while I can work," said Rupert calmly.
"What at? You have never done a hand's turn in your life."