Malcolm never could recollect afterwards what he said to her; but his words, strong, eloquent, convincing, seemed to overwhelm her like a torrent, and yet his manner was perfectly quiet and calm.
He told her, without attempting to soften or palliate the fact, that nothing would reconcile Miss Templeton and her sister to such a marriage; that her brother's character was regarded by them with abhorrence; that their cherished brother should marry the sister of a billiard-marker--a mere adventurer and gambler--was utterly impossible; and Leah's head was bowed low as she listened.

He touched delicately on her own past; but his few words were terribly convincing.

"You have spoken to me of Cedric's youth and freshness," he observed--"do you think that your past life with its sad experiences make you a fit mate for him?
You may tell me you are only a few years older; but in knowledge of life he is a mere child compared to you.

It is in the name of his youth--his fresh, unsullied youth--that I implore you to be generous and set him free." Malcolm said more than this--for his own love for Elizabeth made him eloquent.

He must do her this one service: he must deliver her young brother out of the contaminating hands of these Philistines; and so he reasoned and pleaded with Leah as he had never pleaded in his life before.
Soon she was weeping; he could see the tears dropping into her lap.
Then suddenly, as a clock struck, she started up.