“Yes,” she responded, her voice growing more mournful still. “A man of immense wealth—and with a noble title, but whose name I do not even yet know, and whom I have never seen——”
“Oh! this is infamous, thus to dispose of you to a person whom perhaps you may never be able to love!” cried Charles, with strange emphasis and excitement of manner.
“Love! I shall hate and abhor him, even though he be handsome and amiable beyond all conception,” exclaimed Perdita. “I shall detest him for the mere fact that I am compelled to espouse him.”
“But will you yield with docility to an arrangement which seems to me—pardon the freedom with which I speak of your mother—to be indelicate and unjust?” demanded the young man.
“Alas! I fear that I have no alternative save to yield with as good a grace as I can assume,” answered Perdita, tears now starting to her eyes, and trembling on her long dark lashes; “for the nobleman whom my mother would thus force me to wed, is her opponent in the law-suit—and he has discovered a means of establishing his claims beyond all possibility of farther dispute.”
“Oh! I understand the dreadful selfishness that is now at work in respect to you!” cried Charles. “He will allow your mother to enjoy the fortune, provided you are immolated—sacrificed——”
“Yes: those are the terms;—and now you may easily comprehend how I shrink from such a fate!” exclaimed the young woman, sobbing profoundly.
“But this nobleman—who is he? what is his name?” demanded Hatfield, powerfully excited.
“I know so little of my mother’s private affairs, that I am unable to answer the questions,” said Perdita. “To speak candidly, she refused even to mention the name or the age of this unknown suitor for my hand: and therefore I apprehend the worst. Indeed, from an observation which she inadvertently dropped, I am convinced that he is old—very old——”
“And you who are so young—and so beautiful!” cried Charles Hatfield, gazing upon her with admiration—nay, with adoration and enthusiastic worship. “It were an infamy—a crime—a diabolical crime, thus to sacrifice you!”