“What!” cried Salhana, in the greatest astonishment and anger. “Refused! Are you out of your mind?”
“I believe not; but I am engaged to Siddha.”
“Well, what has that to do with it? you are still free to choose; you are not yet his wife.”
“No; but, what is to me the same thing, I have sworn faith to him, and he has not released me from my promise.”
“Let that be. Before, this might have had weight; but now he has himself broken faith, and so released you from your word.”
“So, perhaps, might others think, who have been brought up with different ideas. Mine forbid me to do as you wish. And if these opinions now stand in your way, you must blame yourself, Father, who have had me brought up in them. Above all—I will make no secret of it—I still love Siddha, in spite of all; and after him I can never love another.”
“There is no necessity for talking of love! It is enough that Salim loves you, and that you can make use of the influence you have over him. But this you do not choose to accept, simply from devotion to antiquated and exaggerated habits of thought, and from a silly passion for one unworthy of you. Think what you throw from you if you persevere in your foolish refusal. A kingdom is offered to you, to which the whole world can scarcely show a rival; and you throw it from you with contempt, for the sake of a dream—a whim!”
“It may be that I am wrong,” said Iravati, with forced calmness, while her father became more and more excited; “but your representations cannot convince me. I have already heard them, and still more forcibly put, from the Prince, without being shaken in my resolution.”
“Your resolution is, that you will resist your father. But it appears to me that hardly agrees with the principles to which you are so much devoted, and which teach that obedience from a child to a father is one of the first duties.”
“Certainly; but not when this duty comes into conflict with a still higher one. However much it grieves me not to obey you, in this case I may not, and I cannot.”