“Father—father!” cried Charles, now becoming full of wrath in his turn: “you exceed the license which belongs to a parent even when the son is in his nonage! Remember that you are alluding to the marriage which I have thought fit to contract——”
“A marriage which will embitter the remainder of your days, sir,” retorted Mr. Hatfield, turning sharply round upon his son, and speaking with almost savage rage.
“This is unworthy of you—and I shall hear no more,” said Charles, in a haughty tone and with a dignified manner, as he made for the door.
“Stop, sir!” cried Mr. Hatfield, rushing after him and detaining him forcibly by the arm: “we may not part thus——”
“Speak not evil, then, of my wife!” exclaimed Charles, turning round, and darting on his sire a look of superb defiance.
“Your wife!” repeated Mr. Hatfield, his manly voice suddenly assuming the almost shrieking tone of a wild hysterical laugh: “your wife!” he said, now echoing his own words. “Oh! my God, that I should hear you call that woman—that vile, profligate woman, by the sacred name——
“Father!” ejaculated Charles Hatfield, now goaded to desperation, and raising his arm in a menacing manner: “forbear—forbear, I say,” he continued in a hoarse, thick voice,—“or, by the heaven above us! I shall strike even you!”
“Listen—listen, Charles—for God’s sake, have patience!” cried Mr. Hatfield, the thought now flashing to his mind that in his ungovernable passion he had dealt only in epithets and averments as yet unintelligible to his son—whereas he should at once have revealed facts, terrible and startling, crushing and overwhelming though they might be.
“I will hear you, father,” said the young man, now speaking in a tone of dogged sullenness “but again I warn you not to provoke me beyond the power of endurance.”
“No—no—I will not anger you, my son,” rejoined the unhappy parent, becoming comparatively calm and even mournful in his manner and aspect; “for, alas! I have tidings to reveal to you which will pierce like a dagger to your heart’s core. The woman whom you have wedded as your wife——”