You wish to make me forget my humiliation; but, for this very reason, I should be the most contemptible of men if I did not refuse the great honor you desire to confer upon my daughter." "What!" exclaimed the baron, in utter astonishment; "you refuse ?" "I am compelled to do so." Thunderstruck at first, Maurice afterward renewed the attack with an energy which no one had ever suspected in his character before.
"Do you, then, wish to ruin my life, Monsieur ?" he exclaimed; "to ruin _our_ life; for if I love Marie-Anne, she also loves me." It was easy to see that he spoke the truth.

The unhappy girl, crimson with happy blushes the moment before, had suddenly become whiter than marble, as she looked imploringly at her father.
"It cannot be," repeated M.Lacheneur; "and the day will come when you will bless the decision I make known at this moment." Alarmed by her son's evident agony, Mme.

d'Escorval interposed: "You must have reasons for this refusal." "None that I can disclose, Madame.

But never while I live shall my daughter be your son's wife!" "Ah! it will kill my child!" exclaimed the baroness.
M.Lacheneur shook his head.
"Monsieur Maurice," said he, "is young; he will console himself--he will forget." "Never!" interrupted the unhappy lover--"never!" "And your daughter ?" inquired the baroness.
Ah! this was the weak spot in his armor; the instinct of a mother was not mistaken.

M.Lacheneur hesitated a moment; but he finally conquered the weakness that had threatened to master him.
"Marie-Anne," he replied, slowly, "knows her duty too well not to obey when I command.