"My dear, I do not want to get rid of you at all. You know the old tag, 'A daughter's a daughter all the days of her life,' and you will be none the less my child when you are the mistress of Rostrevor Castle."
"I shall never be the mistress of Rostrevor Castle," she replied, with downcast eyes.
"Never be the mistress of—never? What do you mean, Dorothy?" And he turned hastily round in his chair and stared at her.
"I was only a child when I promised," she said timidly, "and I did not know anything. I thought it would be a fine thing to have a title and a house in town, and everything that my foolish heart could desire, and I did not understand what marriage to an old man would mean."
"Lord Probus is anything but an old man," he said hastily. "He is in his prime yet."
"But if he were thirty years younger it would be all the same," she answered quietly. "You see, father, I have discovered that I do not love him."
"And you fancy that you love somebody else?" he said, with a sneer.
"I did not say anything of the kind," she said, raising her eyes suddenly to his. "But I know I don't love Lord Probus, and I know I never shall."
"Oh, this is simple nonsense!" he replied angrily. "You cannot play fast and loose in this way. You have given your solemn promise to Lord Probus, and you cannot go back on it."
"But I can go back on it, and I will!"