CHAPTER XVII.
WORKING ON A PIVOT.
Never had Richard been in such high spirits as on the evening of that day on which Harry had made confession to him of her love, and had promised to be his wife should her father's consent be gained.

It was true that she had been far from sanguine upon the latter point; but Richard had his reasons for being of a different opinion.

It would be better, every way, if he could obtain Trevethick's good-will; not that he at all shared in the girl's dread of his anger, but because it really seemed that if he married her from her father's roof he should be fulfilling his mother's injunctions in making alliance with an heiress.
What with his two thousand pounds in gold, and his inn, and his lucky mine, it was plain that the old man would have no despicable sum to leave behind him; and yet, to do Richard justice, this only formed an additional incentive to a project upon which, at all events, he had long set his heart.

He had resolved at all hazards to make the girl his wife.
His love for her was as deep as it was passionate; and now that he was assured from her own lips of its being returned, his heart was filled with joy, and spoke out of its abundance.

It had been hitherto his habit in that family circle round the bar-parlor fire to play the part of listener rather than of talker.