THE INSPIRED ARTIST. 143
"You think more of him than of me?" in angry, jealous tones.
" As you thought more of my mother than anyone else beside." The father was evidently moved, the love of, and for his young wife, who died at Ethel's birth, had been the one absorbing passion of his life, her place in his mind and heart had ever been held sacred. The girl perceived her advantage, and followed it up, by putting her arms around his neck, and burying her face in his bosom. He tried to loose her clasp, but she only clung closer.
" Do not send him away papa," she whispered, looking up into the work- ing face.
" Girl, girl ! you know not what you ask."
" Oh ! I do, I do," imploringly.
" Do you realize that if you marry him, you will have to live in two or three rooms, and work, work as Margaret does in our kitchen. You, who now have servants at your every beck and call, will be nothing but a drudge, a servant, a slave, youiself."
" Sir, you need not excite yourself, I will never ask your daughter to sacrifice her brilliant prospects to share my poverty," bitterly.
Ethel left her father's side, and went shyly up to her lover.
" But if she prefers to share your poverty, rather than enjoy all the riches the world can pour at her feet, will you refuse her offered hand?" holding it out.
A look of agony passed over the man's pale face, as he answered :
" I would not refuse it, Oh ! my love ! but 1 dare not accept it. Your father is right. I am poor, too poor to think of marriage. I should have had more courage ; been more of a man, then to have let you see my weakness."
" Do you call your love for me a weakness, sir?"
" No I call it a madness, God help me !" he cried, snatching her to his heart, and raining passionate kisses upon her lovely, uplifted face.
The father groaned, and turned away.
" Here is my home then, no one shall deprive me of it. Father, I love Walter as I never have, and never shall love anyone else, and he loves me, and I will be his wife if he will have me, come poverty or come death."
" Have your way, wilful girl, but remember I have warned you. If you re- pent when it is too late, do not come to me for help. I will furnish a house for you, and give you your wedding outfit, and after that I wash my hands of you. You must work your own way. As you make your bed, so must you lie in it."
" I have no fear, father."
" Oh ! sir, how can I thank you?"
" By making my girl agood husband, and proving what metal you are made of."
" God helping me, sir, I will," he fervently exclaimed, pressing the unwilling hand of Earnest Langdon.
" I have no personal objection to you Walter, you come of good stock, and I like your principles ; but your poverty I have an objection to. You were brought up a do-nothing, and that is a poor profession to get married on."
" I will yet prove to you, and all the world, that I can do something, if I was brought up to do nothing."
" I am wiUing to be convinced, and so, I dare say, is the world."
Well, they were married, and settled in their little rented house, which was prettily furnished by Ethel's father, and they were intensely happy, Walter suc- ceeded beyond his hopes with his pen, for it is an almost herculean task to make headway in a field where there are so many rivals amongst the living, so many magnificent monuments left by the dead, to discourage a young and struggling author. Ethel's first child, of course added materially to her cares, and her stock of household work, her second, five years after her marriage,
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