“Be still, Jan,” ordered the father. “Think ye, sir, Lambert Meredith’s daughter would ever bring herself to wed a no-name and double-name fellow such as ye? Here is a letter I fetched to ye from that—Mrs. Loring: take it and go to her. She’s the fit company for gentry of your breed, and not my girl.”
“Beg of me forgiveness on your deathbed, or on mine, and I’ll not pardon you the words you have just spoken,” thundered the officer; “and though you stand on the gallows itself I will not stir finger to save you. Once for all, Janice, take choice between us.”
“’T is an option you have no right to force upon me,” responded the girl, desperately.
“Ay, pay no heed to what he says, Jan. Hand him this letter and let him go.”
“If he wants it, he must take it himself,” cried Janice. “I’ll not touch her letter.”
The indignant loathing in the tone of the speaker was too clearly expressed not to be understood, and Brereton replied to it rather than to her words. “I tried to speak to you of her—to tell you the whole wretched story, when last I saw you, but I could not bring myself in such hap—at such an hour—the moment was too untimely—and so I did not. Little I suspected that you already knew the facts of my connection with her.”
“Despite the proof I myself had, I have ever refused to credit when told by others what you have just owned,” declared the girl. “Nor will I listen to you. From the first I scorned and hated her, and now wish never to hear of the shameful creature again.”
Without a word the officer passed into the hall, and began the descent. Before he had reached the foot of the stairs Janice was at its head.
“You’ll not go without a good-by, Jack,” she pleaded. “Obey dadda I ought—but—Oh, Jack—I will—if you will but come back—Yes, I will kiss you.”
Brereton halted and clutched the banister, as if to prevent either departure or return, and could the girl have seen the look on his face she would have been in his arms before he had time to conquer himself. But in doubt as to what the pause indicated, she stood waiting, and after a moment’s struggle Jack strode through the hallway and was gone. So long as his footsteps could be heard Janice stood listening to them, but when they had died out of hearing she went into her own room, and the parents heard the bolt shot.