“In every particular, good Sir Giles,” replied the other, as soon as he could recover utterance.  “And now, most adorable damsel, what say you in answer?  You are too gentle, I am sure, to condemn your slave to endless tortures.  Nay, motion me not to rise.  I have that to say will disarm your frowns, and turn them into smiles of approval and assent. (O, this accursed rheumatism!” he muttered to himself, “I shall never be able to get up unaided!) I love you, incomparable creature—­love you to distraction; and as your beauty has inflicted such desperate wounds upon my heart, so I am sure your gentleness will not fail to cure them.  Devotion like mine must meet its reward.  Your answer, divinest creature! and let it be favourable to my hopes, I conjure you!”

“I have no other answer to give,” replied Aveline, coldly, and with an offended look, “except such as any maiden, thus unwarrantably and unseasonably importuned, would make.  Your addresses are utterly distasteful to me, and I pray you to desist them.  If you have any real wish to oblige me, you will at once free me from your presence.”

“Your hand, Sir Giles—­your hand!” cried the old usurer, raising himself to his feet with difficulty, “So, you are not to be moved by my sufferings—­by my prayers, cruel and proud beauty?” he continued, regarding her with a mortified and spiteful look.  “You are inflexible—­eh?”

“Utterly so,” she replied.

“Anthony Rocke!” cried Dame Sherborne, “show the gentlemen to the door—­and bolt it upon them,” she added, in a lower tone.

“Not so fast, Madam—­not so fast!” exclaimed Sir Francis.  “We will not trouble old Anthony just yet.  Though his fair young mistress is indisposed to listen to the pleadings of love, it follows not she will be equally insensible to the controlling power of her father’s delegated authority.  Her hand must be mine, either freely, or by compulsion.  Let her know on what grounds I claim it, Sir Giles.”

“Your claim cannot be resisted, Sir Francis,” rejoined the other; “and if you had followed my counsel, you would not have condescended to play the abject wooer, but have adopted the manlier course, and demanded her hand as your right.”

“Nay, Sir Giles, you cannot wonder at me, knowing how infatuated I am by this rare and admirable creature.  I was unwilling to assert my rights till all other means of obtaining her hand had failed.  But now I have no alternative.”

“Whence is your authority derived?” inquired Aveline, trembling as she put the question.

“From your dead father,” said Sir Giles, sternly.  “His last solemn injunctions to you were, that you should wed the man to whom he had promised you; provided your hand were claimed by him within a year after his death.  With equal solemnity you bound yourself to fulfil his wishes.  The person to whom you were thus sacredly contracted is Sir Francis Mitchell; and now, in your father’s name, and by your father’s authority, he demands fulfilment of the solemn pledge.”