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041 - A Generous Dowry · Whats Mines Mine

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  Speaker 1: Volume three, chapter seven of What's Mine's Mine by George
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  Speaker 1: mac Donald. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: A generous dowry. The only hope of the chief's mother
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  Speaker 1: was in what the girl's father might say to her
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  Speaker 1: son's proposal. Would not his pride revolt against giving his
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  Speaker 1: daughter to a man who would not receive his blessing
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  Speaker 1: in money. Mister Peregrine Palmer arrived and the next day
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  Speaker 1: Allister called upon him. Not unprepared for the proposal of
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  Speaker 1: the Chief, Mercy's father had nothing to urge against it.
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  Speaker 1: Her suitor's name was almost an historical one, for it
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  Speaker 1: stood high in the home annals of Scotland, and the
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  Speaker 1: new Laird, who had always a vague sense of injury
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  Speaker 1: in the lack of an illustrious pedigree of his own
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  Speaker 1: to send forward, was not unwilling that a man more
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  Speaker 1: justly treated than himself should supply the salatium to his
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  Speaker 1: daughter's children. He received the Chief therefore, if a little pompously,
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  Speaker 1: yet with kindness, and the moment they were seated, Allister
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  Speaker 1: laid his request before him, mister Palmer, He said, I
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  Speaker 1: come to ask the hand of your daughter, Mercy I
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  Speaker 1: have not much beyond myself to offer her, but I
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  Speaker 1: can tell you precisely what there is. Mister Pegrin Palmer
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  Speaker 1: sat for a moment, looking important. He seemed to see
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  Speaker 1: much to ponder in the proposal. Well, ma crude, he
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  Speaker 1: said at length, hesitating with hum and with haw. The
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  Speaker 1: thing is well to speak the truth. You take me
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  Speaker 1: a good deal. By surprise, I do not know how
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  Speaker 1: the thing may appear to missus Palmer, and then the
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  Speaker 1: girl herself. You will allow ought in a free country
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  Speaker 1: to have a word in the matter. We give our
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  Speaker 1: girls absolute liberty. Their own hearts must guide them. That
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  Speaker 1: is where there is no serious exception to be taken. Honestly,
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  Speaker 1: it is not the kind of match we should have chosen.
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  Speaker 1: It is not as if things were with you now
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  Speaker 1: as once, when the land was all your own. And
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  Speaker 1: and you, pardon me, I am a father, did not
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  Speaker 1: have to work with your own hands. Had he been
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  Speaker 1: there on any other errand, the chief would have stated
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  Speaker 1: his opinion that it was degrading to a man to
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  Speaker 1: draw income from anything. He would count it degrading to
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  Speaker 1: put his own hand to But there was so much
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  Speaker 1: he might be compelled to say to the displeasure of
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  Speaker 1: mister Palmer, while asking of him the greatest gift he
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  Speaker 1: had to bestow, that he would say nothing unpalatable, which
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  Speaker 1: he was not compelled to say. My ancestors, he answered,
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  Speaker 1: willing to give the objection a pleasant turn, would certainly
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  Speaker 1: have preferred helping themselves to the produce of lowland fields.
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  Speaker 1: My great great grandfather, scorning to ask any man for
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  Speaker 1: his daughter, carried her off without a word. I am
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  Speaker 1: glad the peculiarity has not shown itself hereditary, said mister Palmer, laughing.
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  Speaker 1: But if I have little to offer, I expect nothing
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  Speaker 1: with her, said the Chief abruptly. I want only herself
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  Speaker 1: a very loverly mode of speaking. But it is needless
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  Speaker 1: to say, no daughter of mine shall leave me without
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  Speaker 1: a certainty one way or the other of suitable maintenance.
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  Speaker 1: You know the old proverb macrude when poverty comes in
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  Speaker 1: at the door. There is hardly a question of poverty
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  Speaker 1: in the sense the proverb intends, answered the Chief, smiling.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, of course, at the same time, you cannot
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  Speaker 1: keep the wolf too far from the door. I would not,
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  Speaker 1: for my part, care to say I had given my
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  Speaker 1: daughter to a poor farmer in the north. Two men,
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  Speaker 1: it is I believe you employ mac crude, The chief
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  Speaker 1: answered with a nod. I have other daughters to settle.
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  Speaker 1: Not to mention my sons, pursued the great little man.
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  Speaker 1: But but I will find a time to talk the
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  Speaker 1: matter over with missus Palmer and see what I can
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  Speaker 1: do for you. Meanwhile, you may reckon you have a
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  Speaker 1: friend at court. All I have seen makes me judge
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  Speaker 1: well of you, where we do not think alike. I
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  Speaker 1: can yet say for you that your faults lean to
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  Speaker 1: virtue side, and are such as my daughter at least
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  Speaker 1: will be no loser by good morning, mc crude, mister
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  Speaker 1: peregrin Palmer rose, and the Chief perplexed and indignant, but
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  Speaker 1: anxious not to prejudice his very doubtful cause. Rose. Also,
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  Speaker 1: you scarcely understand me, mister Palmer, he said, on the
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  Speaker 1: possibility of being honored with your daughter's hand, you must
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  Speaker 1: allow me to say distinctly beforehand that I must decline
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  Speaker 1: receiving anything with her. When will you allow me to
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  Speaker 1: wait upon you again? I will write good morning. The
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  Speaker 1: interview was certainly not much to the assigement of the
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  Speaker 1: Chief's anxiety. He went home, with the feeling that he
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  Speaker 1: had submitted to be patronized, almost insulted by a paltry
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  Speaker 1: fellow whose consequence rested on his ill made money, a
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  Speaker 1: man who owed everything to a false and degrading appetite
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  Speaker 1: in his neighbors. Nothing could have made him put up
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  Speaker 1: with him but the love of mercy his dove in
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  Speaker 1: a crow's nest. But it would all be in vain,
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  Speaker 1: for he could not lie truth. Indeed, if not less
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  Speaker 1: of a virtue, was less of a heroism in the
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  Speaker 1: chief than in most men. For he could not lie.
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  Speaker 1: Had he been tempted to try, he would have reddened, stammered,
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  Speaker 1: broken down with a full shame, and none of the
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  Speaker 1: success of a falsehood. For a week he heard nothing.
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  Speaker 1: There seemed small anxiety to welcome him into the Palmer family.
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  Speaker 1: Then came a letter. It implied, almost said that some
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  Speaker 1: difficulty had been felt as to his reception by every
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  Speaker 1: member of the family, which the chief must himself see
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  Speaker 1: to have been only natural. But while money was of
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  Speaker 1: no consequence to mister Palmer, it was of the greatest
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  Speaker 1: consequence that his daughter should seem to make a good match. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: as only in respect of position, was the alliance objectionable.
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  Speaker 1: He had concluded to set that right, and in giving
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  Speaker 1: him his daughter, to restore the chief's family to its
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  Speaker 1: former dignity by making over to him the Klonrude property
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  Speaker 1: now in his possession by purchase. While he thus did
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  Speaker 1: his duty by his daughter, he hoped the macrud would
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  Speaker 1: accept the arrangement as a mark of esteem for himself.
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  Speaker 1: Two conditions only he would make. The first that as
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  Speaker 1: long as he lived, the shooting should be mister Palmer's
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  Speaker 1: to use or to let, and should extend over the
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  Speaker 1: whole estate. The second that the chief should assume the
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  Speaker 1: baronetcy which belonged to him. My reader will regard the
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  Speaker 1: proposition as not ungenerous. However much the money value of
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  Speaker 1: the land lay in the shooting. As Alister took leave
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  Speaker 1: of his mother for the night, he gave her the letter.
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  Speaker 1: She took it, read it slowly, laughed, angrily, smiled, scornfully,
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  Speaker 1: wept bitterly, crushed it in her hand, and walked up
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  Speaker 1: to her room with her head high. All the time
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  Speaker 1: she was preparing for her bed, she was talking in
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  Speaker 1: her spirit with her husband. When she lay down, she
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  Speaker 1: became a mere prey to her own thoughts, and was
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  Speaker 1: pulled and torn and hurt by them for hours. Ere
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  Speaker 1: she set herself to rule them for the first time
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  Speaker 1: in her life. She distrusted her son. She did not
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  Speaker 1: know what he would do. The temptation would surely be
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  Speaker 1: too strong for him. Two good things were set over
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  Speaker 1: against one evil thing, an evil thing, however, with which
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  Speaker 1: nobody would associate blame, an evil thing which would raise
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  Speaker 1: him high in the respect of every one whose respect
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  Speaker 1: was not worth having. The woman he loved and the
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  Speaker 1: land of his ancestors on the one side, and only
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  Speaker 1: the money that had bought the land for him on
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  Speaker 1: the other would he hold out. He must take the
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  Speaker 1: three together or have none of them. Her fear for
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  Speaker 1: him grew and possessed her. She grew cold as death.
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  Speaker 1: Why did he give her the letter and go without
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  Speaker 1: saying a word? She knew well the arguments he would duce.
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  Speaker 1: Henceforward and forever there would be a gulf between them.
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  Speaker 1: The poor religion he had would never serve to keep
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  Speaker 1: him straight. What was it but a compromise with pride
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  Speaker 1: and self so efficiency it could bear no such strain.
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  Speaker 1: He acknowledged God, but not God reconciled in Christ. Only
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  Speaker 1: God such as unregenerate man would have him, And when
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  Speaker 1: Ian came home, he would be sure to side with Allister.
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  Speaker 1: There was but one excuse for the poor boy, and
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  Speaker 1: that a miserable one, the blinding of love. Yes, there
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  Speaker 1: was more excuse than that. To be lord of the lands,
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  Speaker 1: with the old clan growing and gathering again about its chief,
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  Speaker 1: It was a temptation fit to ruin an archangel. What
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  Speaker 1: could he not do then for his people? What could
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  Speaker 1: he not do for the land and for her? She
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  Speaker 1: might have her Ian always at home with her. God
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  Speaker 1: forbid she should buy even such bliss at such a cost.
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  Speaker 1: She was only thinking. She said to herself, how if
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  Speaker 1: the thing had to be, she would make the best
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  Speaker 1: of it. She was bound as a mother to do that.
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  Speaker 1: But the edge of the wedge was in. She said
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  Speaker 1: to herself afterwards that the enemy of her soul must
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  Speaker 1: have been lying in wait for her that night. She
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  Speaker 1: almost believed in some bodily presence of him in her room.
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  Speaker 1: How otherwise could she account for her fall. He must
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  Speaker 1: have been permitted to tempt her, because in condemning evil,
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  Speaker 1: she had given way to contempt and worldly pride. Her
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  Speaker 1: thoughts unchecked, flowed forward. They lingered, brooding for a time
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  Speaker 1: on the joys that might be hers, the joys of
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  Speaker 1: the mother of a chief over territory as well as hearts.
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  Speaker 1: Then they stole round and began to flow the other way.
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  Speaker 1: Ere the thing had come, she began to make the
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  Speaker 1: best of it for the sake of her son and
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  Speaker 1: the bond between them. Then she began to excuse it
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  Speaker 1: for the sake of the clan. And now she began
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  Speaker 1: to justify it a little for the sake of the world.
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  Speaker 1: Everything that could favor the acceptance of the offer came
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  Speaker 1: up clear before her. The land was the same as
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  Speaker 1: it always had been. It had never been in the distillery,
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  Speaker 1: it had never been in the brew house. It was clean.
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  Speaker 1: Whoever had transacted concerning it through whatever hands it had passed,
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  Speaker 1: a good cow was a good cow. Had she been
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  Speaker 1: twenty times reaved. For mister Palmer to give and Allister
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  Speaker 1: to take the land back would be some amends to
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  Speaker 1: the nation grievously injured in the money of its purchase.
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  Speaker 1: The deed would restore to the redeeming and uplifting influence
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  Speaker 1: of her son. Many who were fast perishing from poverty
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  Speaker 1: and whisky for their houses and crofts. Once more in
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  Speaker 1: the power of their chief, he would again be their
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  Speaker 1: landlord as well. It would be a pure exercise of
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  Speaker 1: the law of compensation. Hundreds who had gone abroad would
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  Speaker 1: return to replenish the old glens with the true national wealth,
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  Speaker 1: with men and women and children growing to be men
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  Speaker 1: and women for the hour of their country's need. These,
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  Speaker 1: with true the golden crops, the glorious times she had
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  Speaker 1: herself seen, would return. When Strathroude could alone send out
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  Speaker 1: a regiment of the soldiers that may be defeated, but
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  Speaker 1: will not live to know it. The dream of her
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: boys would come true. They would rebuild the old castle
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  Speaker 1: and make it a landmark in the history of the Highlands.
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  Speaker 1: But while she stood elate upon this high, soaring peak
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  Speaker 1: of the dark mountains of Ambition, Sudden before her mind's
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  Speaker 1: eye rose the face of her husband. Sudden his voice
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  Speaker 1: was in her ear. He seemed to stand above her
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  Speaker 1: in the pulpit, reading from the prophet Isaiah. The four
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  Speaker 1: woes that begin four contiguous chapters. Woe to the crown
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  Speaker 1: of Pride, to the drunkards of Ephrium, whose glorious beauty
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  Speaker 1: is a fading flower, which are on the head of
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  Speaker 1: the fat valleys. Of them that are overcome with wine.
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  Speaker 1: Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt.
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  Speaker 1: Add ye year to year, let them kill sacrifices, yet
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  Speaker 1: I will distress Ariel. Woe to the rebellious children, saith
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  Speaker 1: the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me, and
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  Speaker 1: that cover with a covering, but not of My spirit,
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  Speaker 1: that they may add sin to sin. Woe to them
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  Speaker 1: that go down to Egypt for help, and stay on
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  Speaker 1: horses and trust in chariots because they are many, and
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  Speaker 1: in horsemen because they are very strong. But they look
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  Speaker 1: not unto the Holy One of Israel. Neither seek the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: Then followed the words opening the next chapter. Behold, a
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  Speaker 1: king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment,
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  Speaker 1: and a man shall be as an hiding place from
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  Speaker 1: the wind and a covert from the tempest, All this
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  Speaker 1: in solemn order. One woe after the other, she heard
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  Speaker 1: in the very voice of her husband. In awful spiritual
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  Speaker 1: procession they passed before her listening mind, she grew cold
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  Speaker 1: as the dead, and shuddered and shivered She looked over
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  Speaker 1: the edge into the heart of a black gulf into
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  Speaker 1: which she had been on the point of casting herself
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  Speaker 1: say rather down whose side, searching for an easy descent.
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  Speaker 1: She had already slid a long way when the voice
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  Speaker 1: from above recalled her. She covered her face with her
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  Speaker 1: hands and wept, ashamed before God, ashamed before her husband.
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  Speaker 1: It was a shame, unutterable that the things should ever
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  Speaker 1: have looked tempting. She cried for forgiveness, rose and sought
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: Alister's room. Seldom since he was a man had she
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  Speaker 1: visited her elder son. In his chamber, she cherished for
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  Speaker 1: him as chief something of the reverence of the clan.
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  Speaker 1: The same familiarity had never existed between them as between
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  Speaker 1: her and En. Now she was going to wake him
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  Speaker 1: and hold a solemn talk with him. Not a moment
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  Speaker 1: longer should he stand. Leaning over the gulf into which
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  Speaker 1: she had herself well nigh fallen. She found him awake
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  Speaker 1: and troubled, though not with an eternal trouble such as hers.
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  Speaker 1: I thought I should find you asleep, Alister, she said.
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  Speaker 1: It was not very likely. Mother, He answered gently, you
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  Speaker 1: too have been tried with terrible thoughts. I have been tried,
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  Speaker 1: but hardly with terrible thoughts. I know that Mercy loves me. Ah,
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  Speaker 1: my son, my dear son, Love itself is the terrible thing.
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  Speaker 1: It has drawn many a man from the way of peace?
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  Speaker 1: Did it draw you and my father from the way
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  Speaker 1: of peace? Asked Allister, Not for a moment? She answered,
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  Speaker 1: It made our steps firmer in the way. Then why
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  Speaker 1: should you fear it will draw me from it? I
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  Speaker 1: hope I have never made you think I was not
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: following my father? And you who knows what either of
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: us might have done with such a temptation as yours.
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  Speaker 1: Either you say, mother, that my father was not so
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  Speaker 1: good as I think him, or that he did what
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: he did in his own strength? Let him that thinketh?
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  Speaker 1: You know? The rest reach joined the mother. I don't
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  Speaker 1: think I am tempted to anything. Just now there it is.
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  Speaker 1: You see the temptation so subtle that you do not
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  Speaker 1: suspect its character. I am confident my father would have
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: done just as I mean to do. What do you
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: mean to do? Is it my own mother who asks me?
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Does she distrust her husband and her son together? It
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: began to dawn on the mother that she had fallen
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: into her own temptation through distrust of her son. Because
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: she distrusted him, she sought excuse for him. An excuse
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: had turned to all but justification. She had given place
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  Speaker 1: to the devil. But she must be sure about Allister.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: She had had enough of the wiles of Satan. She
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: must not trust her impressions. The enemy might even now
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  Speaker 1: be bent on deceiving her afresh. For a moment, she
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: kept silence, then said, it would be a grand thing
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  Speaker 1: to have the whole countryside your own again, wouldn't it, Alister?
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  Speaker 1: It would, mother, he answered, and have all your people
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  Speaker 1: quite under your own care a grand thing? Indeed, Mother,
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  Speaker 1: how can you say, then, it is no temptation to you,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: because it is none. How is that I would not
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: have my clan under a factor of Satan's mother? I
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: do not understand you. What else should I be if
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: I accepted the oversight of them on terms of allegiance
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  Speaker 1: to him? That was how he tempted Jesus, I will
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  Speaker 1: not be the Devil's steward to call any land or
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: any people mine. His mother kissed him on the forehead,
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  Speaker 1: walked erect from the room, and went to her own
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: to humble herself afresh in the morning, Alister took his
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: dinner of bread and cheese in his pocket and set
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: out for the tomb on the hill top. There he
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: remained until the evening and wrote his answer sorely missing Ian.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: He begged mister Peregrine Palmer to dismiss the idea of
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: enriching him, thanked him for his great liberality, but declared
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: himself entirely content and determined not to change his position.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: He could not and would not avail himself of his generosity.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Mister Palmer, unable to suspect the reasons at work in
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: the chief's mind, pleased with the genuineness of his acknowledgment,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: and regarding him as a silly fellow who would chiotically
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: outdo him in magnanimity, answered in a more familiar, almost
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: jocular strain. He must not be unreasonable, he said. Pride was,
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  Speaker 1: no doubt an estimable weakness, but it might be carried
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  Speaker 1: too far. Men must act upon realities, not fancies. He
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: must learn to have an eye to the main chance
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  Speaker 1: and eschew heroics. What was life without money? It was
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: not as if he gave it grudgingly, for he made
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: him heartily welcome. The property was, in truth but a
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: flea bite to him. He hoped the mac crude would
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: live long to enjoy it and make his father in
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: law the great grandfather of chiefs, perpetuating his memory to
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: ages unborn. There was more to the same effect, void,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: neither of eloquence nor of a certain good heartedness, which
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: the laird both recognized and felt. It was again his
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: painful turn. He had now to make his refusal as
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: positive as words could make it. He said he was
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: sorry to appear headstrong, perhaps uncivil, and ungrateful, but he
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: could not and would not, accept anything beyond the priceless
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: gift of Mercy's hand. Not even then did Peregrine Palmer
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: divine that his offered gift was despised, that idea was
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: to him all but impossible of conception. He read mere
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: opposition and was determined to have his way. Next time,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: He too wrote positively, though far from unkindly, the Makruid
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: must take the land with his daughter, or leave both.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: The chief replied that he could not yield his claim
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: to Mercy, for he loved her and believed she loved him.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: Therefore begged mister Peregrine Palmer of his generosity to leave
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: the decision with his daughter. The next was a letter
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: from Mercy, entreating Allister not to hurt her father by
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: seeming to doubt the kindness of his intentions. She assured
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: him her father was not the man to interfere with
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: his management of the estate. The shooting was all he
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: cared about, and if that was the difficulty, she imagined,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: even that might be got over. She ended praying that
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: he would, for her sake cease making much of a trifle,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: for such the greatest property in the world must be
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: betwixt them. No man, she said, could love a woman
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: write who would not be under the poorest obligation to
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: her people. The Chief answered her in the tenderest way,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: assuring her that if the property had been hers, he
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: would only have blessed her for it, that he was
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: not making much ado about nothing, that pride or unwillingness
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: to be indebted had nothing to do with his dear termination,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: That the thing was with him, in very truth a
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: matter of conscience. He implored her, therefore, from the bottom
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: of his heart, to do her best to persuade her father,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: if she would save him, who loved her more than
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: his own soul from a misery God only could make
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: him able to bear. Mercy was bewildered. She neither understood
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: nor suspected. She wrote again, saying her father was now
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: thoroughly angry, that she found herself without argument, the thing
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: being incomprehensible to her as to her father, that she
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: could not see where the conscience of the thing lay.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Her terror was that if he persisted, she would be
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: driven to think he did not care for her his behavior.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: She had tried in vain to reconcile with what he
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: had taught her. If he destroyed her faith in him,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: all her faith might go, and she be left without
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: God as well as without him. Then Allister saw that
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: necessity had dominated, and that it was no longer possible
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: to hold anything back, whatever other suffering he might cause her.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Mercy must not be left to think him capable of
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: sacrificing her to an absurdity. She must know the truth
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: of the matter, and how it was to him of
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: the deepest conscience. He must let her see that if
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: he allowed her to persuade him, it would be to
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: go about thenceforward, consumed of self contempt, a slave to
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: the property, no more its owner than if he had
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: stolen it, and in danger of committing suicide to escape
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: hating his wife. For the man without a tender conscience
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: cannot imagine the state to which another may come, who
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: carries one about with him, stinging and accusing him all
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: day long. So out of a heart aching with very fullness,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: Allister wrote the Truth to Mercy, and Mercy, though it
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: filled her with grief and shame, had so much love
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: for the truth and for the man who had waked
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: that love, that she understood him and loved him through
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: all the pain of his words. Loved him the more
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: for daring the risk of losing her loved him yet
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: the more for cleaving to her, while loathing the mere
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: thought of sharing her wealth. Loved him most of all
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: that he was immaculate in truth. She carried the letter
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: to her father's room, laid it before him without a word,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: and went out again. The storm gathered swiftly and burst
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: at once. Not two minutes seemed to have passed when
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: she heard his door open and a voice of wrathful
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: displeasure call out her name. She returned in fear, but
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: in fortitude. Then first she knew her father, for although
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: wrath and injustice were at home in him. They seldom
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: showed themselves out of doors. He treated her as a
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: willing party to an unspeakable insult from a highland bore
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: to her own father to hand him such a letter
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: was the same as to have written it herself. She
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: identified herself with the writer. When she became the bearer
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: of the maine hound's insolence. He raged at Mercy, as
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: in truth he had never raged before. If once she
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: spoke to the fellow again he would turn her out
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: of the house, she would have left the room. He
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: locked the door, set a chair before his writing table,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: and ordered her to sit there and write to his dictation.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: But no power on earth or under it would have
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: prevailed to make Mercy write as her own the words
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: that were not hers. You must excuse me, Papa, she said,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: in a tone unheard from her before. This raising of
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: the rampart of human dignity crowned with refusal between him
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: and his own child, gulled him afresh. Then you shall
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: be compelled, he said, with an oath through his clenched teeth.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Mercy stood silent and motionless. Go to your room. By
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: heaven you shall stay there till you do as I
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: tell you. He was between her and the door. You
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: need not think to gain your point by obstinacy, he added,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: I swear that not another word shall pass between you
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: and that blockhead of a chief, not if I have
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: to turn watch dog myself. He made way for her,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: but did not open the door. She left the room,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: too angry to cry, and went to her own. Her
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: fear of her father had vanished. With Alister on her side,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: she could stand against the world. She went to her window.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: She could not see the cottage from it, but she
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: could see the ruin and the hill of the Crescent
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: Fire on which she had passed through the shadow of death.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Gazing on the hill, she remembered what Alister would have
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: her do, and with her father in heaven, sought shelter
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: from her father on Earth. End of Volume three, Chapter seven,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: recording by Hannah Mary