"To save me, by marrying Doctor Wiseman, my dear."
"Oh, Guardy, oh, Guardy! You surely weren't serious in proposing that?" exclaimed Gipsy, really astonished.
"Serious? Alas! I was never so serious before in my life. You will do this, Gipsy?"
"Oh, Guardy! Marry him? Heaven forbid!" exclaimed Gipsy, with a violent shudder.
"Then you will let us all be turned out from the old roof-tree—out into the world to die; for, Gipsy, if the old place is taken from me, I should break my heart through grief!"
"Oh, Guardy, it won't be so bad as that! Surely something can be done? How much do you owe?"
"More than I dare mention. Child, nothing can be done to save us unless you consent to this marriage."
"Oh! that is too horrible even to think of. Can you not write to Louis? I'm sure he could do something to save us."
"No, he could do nothing; and he must never know it at all. Even supposing he could, before a letter could reach him we would be publicly disgraced—I should be branded as a rogue, and turned out of doors to die. No, Gipsy, unless you consent, before the week is out, to become the bride of Doctor Wiseman, all hope will be over. And though afterward, by some hitherto unheard-of miracle, the property should be restored to us, I should not live to see it; for if you persist in refusing, Gipsy, I will die by my own hand, sooner than live to be branded like a felon. And Lizzie and Mrs. Gower, who love you so well, how do you think they could live, knowing that all had been lost through your ingratitude! Louis, too, your foster-brother, how will he look on the girl whose obstinacy will make him a beggar? Consent and all will be well, the gratitude and love of an old man will bless you through life; refuse, and my death will be on your soul, haunting you through all your cheerless, unblessed life."
With all the eloquence and passion of intense selfishness he spoke, while each word burned into the heart and soul of his listener. She was pacing up and down the floor, half-maddened by his words, while the word ingratitude seemed dancing in living letters of fire before her.