Of course she had not
expected that her father would yield at the first word. He, no
doubt, would wish that she should make a more exalted marriage.
She had known that she would have to encounter opposition, though
she had not expected to be told that she had disgraced herself. As
she sat there she resolved that under no pretence would she give
up her lover;--but she was so far abashed that she could not find
words to express herself. He, too, had been silent for a few
moments before he again asked her for her promise.
'Will you tell me, Mary, that you will not see him again?'
'I don't think I can say that, papa.'
'Why not?'
'Oh, papa, how can I, when of all people in the world I love him
the best.'
It is not without a pang that anyone can be told that she who is
of all the dearest has some other one who is to her the dearest.
Such pain fathers and mothers have to bear; and though, I think,
the arrow is never so blunted but that it leaves something of a
wound behind, there is in most cases, if not a perfect salve,
still an ample consolation.
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