Let me offer to sell your estate as if you 'were leaving the country.' By that means you will escape the mortification of a forced sale." For several moments Monsieur De Vlierbeck remained silent, his face buried in his hands, as if crushed by the notary's advice and callousness.

At length he replied, calmly but humbly,-- "Your counsel is, perhaps, wise and generous; yet I will not follow it.
You know that all my sacrifices, my painful life, my constant agony, have been patiently endured for the sake of my only child.

You alone know that all I do has but, one purpose,--a purpose which I hold sacred.
I have reason to believe that God is about granting the earnest prayer I have daily offered for ten years.

My daughter is beloved by a rich gentleman, whose character I think I may confide in, and his family appears to sympathize in all his views.

_Four months!_ it is but a short time, alas! yet, ought I, by anticipating the legal period of a sale, to destroy all my fond hopes?
Ought I instantly to welcome misery for myself and my child when I see the chance of sure relief from all we have suffered ?" "Then you want to _deceive_ these people, whoever they may be?
Do you not suppose that by such a course of conduct you may make your daughter still more wretched ?" At the word "_deceive_" the poor gentleman winced as if stung by an adder, while a nervous thrill ran through his limbs and suffused his face with a blush of shame.
"_Deceive!_" echoed he, bitterly; "oh, no! but I dare not, by a rash avowal of my want, stifle the love that is growing up mutually.