She suddenly towered over him, like some threatening fate, and her uplifted arm trembled from the intensity of her indignation.

“At least—­you are loyal to your tribe!”

“I am, to my heart’s core.  You could pay me no higher compliment.”

“Ellice wrote that she had bestowed her affections on—­on—­the ‘exiled scion of a noble house,’ who paid his board bill by teaching languages and music in the school; and who very naturally preferred to marry a rich fool, who would pay them for him.  I answered her letter, which was addressed to her own mother—­then quite ill at home—­and I told her precisely what she might expect, if she persisted in her insane folly.  As soon as my wife convalesced sufficiently to render my departure advisable, I started to bring my daughter home; but she ran away, a few hours before my arrival, and while, hoping to rescue Ellice, I was in pursuit of the precious pair, my wife relapsed and died—­the victim of excitement brought on by her child’s disgrace.  I came back here to a desolate, silent house;—­bereft of wife and daughter; and in the grave of her mother, I buried every atom of love and tenderness I ever entertained for Ellice.  When the sun is suddenly blotted out at noon, and the world turns black—­black, we grope to and fro aimlessly; but after awhile, we accommodate ourselves to the darkness;—­and so, I became a different man—­very hard, and I dare say very bitter.  The world soon learned that I would tolerate no illusion to my disgrace, and people respected my family cancer, and prudently refrained from offering me nostrums to cure it.  My wife had a handsome estate of her own right, and every cent of her fortune I collected, and sent with her jewelry to Ellice.  Did you know this?”

“I have heard only of the jewels.”

“As I supposed, the money was squandered before you could recollect.”

“I know that we were reduced to poverty, by the failure of some banking house in Paris.  I was old enough when it occurred, to remember ever afterward, the dismay and distress it caused.  My father no doubt placed my mother’s money there for safety.”

“I wrote one long, final letter when I sent the checks for the money, and I told Ellice I wished never to see, never to hear from her again.  I told her also, I had only one wish concerning her, and that was, that I might be able to forget her so completely, that if we should meet in the Last Judgment, I could not possibly know her.  I assured her she need expect nothing at my death; as I had taken good care that my estate should not fall into the clutches of—­her—­ ‘exiled scion of a noble house.’  Now do you consider that she has any claim on me?”

“You must not ask me to sit in judgment on my parents.”

“You shall decide a question of business facts.  I provided liberally for her once; can you expect me to do so again?  Has she any right to demand it?”

“Having defied your parental wishes, she may have forfeited a daughter’s claim; but as a heart-broken sufferer, you cannot deny her the melancholy privilege of praying for your help, on her death-bed.”