"Ah, I see," said she, "he saw my cousin coming home to visit us rather often, and he invented that little piece of news. It was he—Tom Soher—whom we met just now, and who scrutinized us so." Then Adèle told him all about her father's intentions. She tried to look bright, but Frank saw what she endeavoured to conceal: a painful contraction of the forehead at times. When she had finished, she asked smilingly: "What do you think of my father's mode of procedure?"
Frank looked at her anxiously. "I hope it will never be," he said.
"Indeed!"
"Because," he continued, "I should be extremely grieved to see you forced into an union without love."
"How do you know that it would be such an one?" she asked.
"Because," responded he, "when you told me about your father's plans, I saw your face. If there is any truth in physiognomy, you recoil with horror at the prospect of one day marrying Tom Soher."
She changed the subject of the conversation and nothing more was said about it that evening.
Going home; Frank thought of the difficulties that were rising before him. He soliloquized: "It is always the same old story; a greedy, avaricious, grasping father, sacrificing his daughter's happiness for the sake of his pride. But it must not be. I can and will save her from such a terrible fate."
He was full of indignant wrath against her father. "To think that she shudders at the thought of it," he muttered.