Your addresses are utterly
distasteful to me, and I pray you to desist them. If you have any real
wish to oblige me, you will at once free me from your presence."
"Your hand, Sir Giles--your hand!" cried the old usurer, raising
himself to his feet with difficulty, "So, you are not to be moved by my
sufferings--by my prayers, cruel and proud beauty?" he continued,
regarding her with a mortified and spiteful look. "You are
inflexible--eh?"
"Utterly so," she replied.
"Anthony Rocke!" cried Dame Sherborne, "show the gentlemen to the
door--and bolt it upon them," she added, in a lower tone.
"Not so fast, Madam--not so fast!" exclaimed Sir Francis. "We will not
trouble old Anthony just yet. Though his fair young mistress is
indisposed to listen to the pleadings of love, it follows not she will
be equally insensible to the controlling power of her father's delegated
authority. Her hand must be mine, either freely, or by compulsion. Let
her know on what grounds I claim it, Sir Giles."
"Your claim cannot be resisted, Sir Francis," rejoined the other; "and
if you had followed my counsel, you would not have condescended to play
the abject wooer, but have adopted the manlier course, and demanded her
hand as your right."
"Nay, Sir Giles, you cannot wonder at me, knowing how infatuated I am by
this rare and admirable creature. I was unwilling to assert my rights
till all other means of obtaining her hand had failed.
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