"Merciful heavens!" exclaimed Rosamond, appalled by this terrible announcement. "But if I cannot command my own convictions?" she added hastily.
"You must cherish a Christian spirit—you must be less prompt in forming opinions—less ready to arrive at those convictions which you represent to be uncontrollable," said Mr. Torrens, endeavouring to bewilder his daughter, and thereby render her spirit ductile and her mind pliant, so that he might manage both as he pleased. "So far from nourishing malignity against Mrs. Slingsby, you should seek consolation with her; for your own mother is not here to console you!"
"God be thanked that my mother is not here to witness my disgrace!" ejaculated Rosamond, clasping her hands fervently.
"For the sake of my daughters I was wrong—yes, I was wrong not to have married again," said Mr. Torrens, as if musing to himself. "I should have given a protectress to my children—a lady who would have been a second mother to them; and then all this would not have occurred! But it is not yet too late to ensure your future welfare, Rosamond, by those means," he added, turning towards his daughter, who had listened with surprise to her father's previous observations; "and in accomplishing that aim, I may at the same time afford a convincing proof to a deserving, wrongly-suspected, and misjudged woman of my own esteem, and inferentially of your regret at the calumniatory sentiments you have cherished concerning her."
"My dear father—I do not understand you!" cried Rosamond, a dreadful suspicion weighing on her mind; and which, nevertheless, seemed so wild and ridiculous—so utterly impossible to be well-founded, that she fancied she had not rightly comprehended the sentiments of her parent.
"I am thinking how I can best ensure your welfare and happiness, Rosamond," he said, "by giving you a substitute for that maternal protectress whom you have lost—one who will be a companion and a friend to you——"
"Father!" exclaimed Rosamond, horrified at the idea of having a step-mother, and trembling with indescribable alarms lest she had indeed too well read her sire's intentions respecting the one whom he proposed to invest with that authority.
"Will you hear me with calmness?—will you subdue this excitement, which amounts to an undutiful aversion to all I am projecting for your sake?" demanded Mr. Torrens, again assuming a severe tone: then, perceiving that his daughter was dismayed by his manner, he hastily added, as if determined at once to put an end to a painful scene, "If I have consulted you, Rosamond, on the step that I propose to take, it was because I deemed you sensible and reasonable enough to merit that proof of confidence on my part, and obedient enough to submit becomingly to the dictates of my superior wisdom and experience. Know, then, that it is my intention to marry again—for your sake—and that my inclinations, as well as my interests, induce me to fix my choice upon Mrs. Slingsby."
Rosamond uttered not a word, but fell back senseless in her chair.