sincerity. Yet this very circumstance, which you would suppose likely to please me, is precisely that which has withheld me from giving the consent which I have often been upon the point of uttering.
"My spring of life is past. Can I then hope to preserve for any length of time that ardor of affection which in the general amounts almost to madness? If his love should cool, as it certainly will after our marriage, will he not reproach me for having prevented him from forming a more advantageous
I may be made to suffer for any imprudent remark which you may make."
"But, papa, have you not often told us," said Eugene, "that it was proper to resist an act of oppression?"
"Yes," said the father proudly, though conscious that his words might be reported and misrepresented to his merciless