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Cruel As The Grave

Page 13

"Dear father, don't talk so. You may live twenty years yet," answered

the daughter, with a blending of affectionate solicitude and angry

impatience in her tones and looks, for Sybil was very fond of the old

man, and also very intolerant of unpleasant subjects.

"Well, well, my dear, since you prefer it, I will live twenty years

longer to please you--if I can. But whether I live or die, my

daughter, I wish to see you well married."

"Ah, father, why can you not leave me free?"

"Because, my darling, if anything should happen to me, you would be left

utterly without protection; your hand would become the aim of every

adventurer in the county; you would become the prey of some one among

them who would squander your fortune, abuse your person, and break your

heart."

"You know very well, father, that I should break such a villain's head

first. I a victim--I the prey of a fortune-hunter, or the slave of a

brute! I look as if I was likely to be--do I not? Father, you insult

your daughter by the thought," exclaimed Sybil, with flushing cheeks and

flashing eyes.

"There, there, my dear! don't flame up!" said the old man, laying his

hand upon the fiery creature's head; "be quiet as you can, Sybil--I

cannot bear excitement now, child."

"Forgive me, dear father, and forbear, if you love me, from such talk as

this. I never could become an ill-used, suffering, snivelling wife. I

detest the picture as I utterly despise all weak and whimpering women.

I have no sympathy whatever for your abused wives--even for your

dethroned or beheaded queens. Why should a wife permit herself to be

abused, or a queen suffer herself to be dethroned or beheaded, without

first having done something to redeem herself from the contemptible role

of a victim, even if it was to change it for the awful one of

criminal--"

"--Hush, Sybil, hush! You know not what you say. The Saviour of the

world--"

"----Was a divine martyr, father," said Sybil, reverently bowing her

head--"was a divine martyr, not a victim. All who suffer and die in a

great cause are martyrs; but those who suffer and die for nothing but of

their own weakness are victims, with whom I have no sympathy. I never

could be a victim, father."

"Heaven help you, Sybil!"

"You need not fear for me, father. I can take care of myself as well as

if I were a son, instead of a daughter of the House of Berners," said

Sybil, haughtily.

"You may be able to protect yourself from all others, but can you always

protect yourself from yourself?" sighed the old man.

Sybil did not answer.

"But, to come back to the point from which you started, like the fiery

young filly that you are--Sybil, I greatly desire to see you married to

some worthy young gentleman whom you can love and I approve."

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