'Indeed, I will!' said Harriet, joyfully, for she knew there was not much cordiality between them.
Now Hiram had suddenly conceived the idea of consulting Doctor Frank about any latent tendency to paralysis in his constitution, and whether it was hereditary or not, and so forth, and so forth. Aside from his high reputation as a physician, he knew his brother could naturally judge better about that than any one else. His mind, had wandered, therefore, from his daughter back to himself.
Fortunately, she did not understand the selfish nature of the interruption.
'I wish you would come home as early every day, papa. How little you are with us!'
'It is a great self-denial, my child—very great,' responded Hiram; 'but on the rich fall a heavy responsibility—very heavy—and I must bear it. Providence has so ordered. We must uphold society. We have to sustain law and order—law and order.'
He should have said that it was law and order which sustained him.
[Ah, reader, it is a mighty moral restraint which makes the crowd wait patiently outside.]
Harriet heaved a deep sigh. She could not deny what her father had so pertinently expressed, yet these high-sounding words made no impression on her.
'Alas!' she said, mournfully, 'if I were a man, I should never wish to be rich.'
Hiram was preparing to make a harsh reply, but, looking at his daughter, her wan features at that moment were so expressive of every finer feeling, that his baser nature was subdued before it.