The old man had been sleeping, but awoke as she entered, and probably

refreshed by the short repose he had enjoyed, stretched forward his arms

to his daughter with an expression of confiding fondness, which, in the

then state of Constantia's feelings, but added to the agony she endured.

She could not resist the mute appeal; falling on her knees, she buried

her face amid the drapery of his robe. In this posture she continued for

a few minutes: her lips uttered no word, but her bosom heaved as if in

mortal struggle, and her hard breathings were almost groans. At length,

still kneeling, she raised her head, her hands clasped, her swollen but

tearless eyes fixed upon the pale, anxious, and alarmed countenance of

her parent. He would have spoken, but she raised her finger in token

that she entreated silence; a moment afterwards she addressed him in

broken and disjointed sentences.

"I can hardly give it utterance--and when I think upon it, I know not

why I should intrude so vile a falsehood on your ear, my father; but

Burrell seemed so real, so fearfully real in what he said, that I

tremble still, and my voice comes heavily to my lips." She paused for

breath, and pressed her clasped hands on her bosom.

Sir Robert, imagining that she alluded to her marriage, which he knew

Burrell must have been urging upon her, replied,-"My dearest child knows that I have not pressed her union; but Sir

Willmott is so anxious--so attached--and, I must say, that my grey hairs

would go peacefully to the grave were I to see her his wife. I am almost

inclined to think my Constance capricious and unjust upon this point;

but I am sure her own good sense, her regard for her father----"

"Merciful powers!" interrupted Constance, wildly; "and is it really

possible that you knew of his proposal? Ay, ay, you might have known

that, but you could not know the awful, the horrid threat he held out

to me, if I did not comply with his demand--ay, demand for an

immediate union?

"It was very imprudent, very useless, in fact," said the baronet,

peevishly, his mind reverting to the proposals of the Buccaneer, which

he believed Burrell had communicated to Constantia; "very absurd to

trouble you with the knowledge he possesses of my affairs--that is

strange wooing--but good will arise from it, for you will now, knowing

the great, the overpowering motive that I have for seeing your union

accomplished----"

The baronet's sentence remained unfinished, for the look and manner of

his daughter terrified him. She had risen from her knees, and stood, her

eyelids straining from her glaring eyes, that were fixed upon her

father, while her hands were extended, as if to shut out the figure upon

which she still gazed.




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