I tell
you frankly that I do not believe that as times are it will be
possible to raise thirty thousand pounds to pay off the charges unless
it is by the help of Edward Cossey. So if he lives--and as he has
lasted so long I expect that he will live--and you refuse to go on
with your engagement to him we shall be sold up, that is all; for this
man Quest, confound him, will show us no mercy."
"I know it, father," answered Ida, "but I cannot and will not marry
him, and I do not think you can expect me to do so. I became engaged,
or rather promised to become engaged to him, because I thought that
one woman had no right to put her own happiness before the welfare of
an old family like ours, and I would have carried out that engagement
at any cost. But since then, to tell you the truth," and she blushed
deeply, "not only have I learned to dislike him a great deal more, but
I have come to care for some one else who also cares for me, and who
therefore has a right to be considered. Think, father, what it means
to a woman to sell herself into bodily and mental bondage--when she
cares for another man."
"Well, well," said her father with some irritation, "I am no authority
upon matters of sentiment; they are not in my line and I know that
women have their prejudices.
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