 but he dashed them hurriedly away, as
though unwilling that his weakness should be known, and regarded her with
mingled admiration and compassion.
    »I never until now,« he said, »believed, that the frivolous actions of a
young man could move me like these of my own son. I never knew till now, the
worth of a woman's heart, which boys so lightly win, and lightly fling away.
Trust me, dear young lady, that I never until now did know your worth; and
though an abhorrence of deceit and falsehood has impelled me to seek you out,
and would have done so had you been the poorest and least gifted of your sex, I
should have lacked the fortitude to sustain this interview could I have pictured
you to my imagination as you really are.«
    Oh! If Mrs. Varden could have seen the virtuous gentleman as he said these
words, with indignation sparkling from his eyes - if she could have heard his
broken, quavering voice - if she could have beheld him as he stood bareheaded in
the sunlight, and with unwonted energy poured forth his eloquence!
    With a haughty face, but pale and trembling too, Emma regarded him in
silence. She neither spoke nor moved, but gazed upon him as though she would
look into his heart.
    »I throw off,« said Mr. Chester, »the restraint which natural affection
would impose on some men, and reject all bonds but those of truth and duty. Miss
Haredale, you are deceived; you are deceived by your unworthy lover, and my
unworthy son.«
    Still she looked at him steadily, and still said not one word.
    »I have ever opposed his professions of love for you; you will do me the
justice, dear Miss Haredale, to remember that. Your uncle and myself were
enemies in early life, and if I had sought retaliation, I might have found it
here. But as we grow older, we grow wiser - better, I would fain hope - and from
the first, I have opposed him in this attempt. I foresaw the end, and would have
spared you, if I could.«
    »Speak plainly, sir,« she faltered. »You deceive me, or are deceived
yourself. I do not believe you - I cannot - I should not.«
    »First,« said Mr. Chester, soothingly, »for there may be in your mind some
latent angry feeling to which I would not appeal, pray take this letter. It
reached my hand by chance, and by mistake, and should
