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Rh those imploring eyes, yet I answered, 'None!' Again she sunk back on her father's arm, and I saw the shudder that ran through her, by the tremulous motion of her long black tresses.

"'But,' continued her father, 'if there be no mercy, there may yet be justice. He has married my daughter both by the forms of our church, and of his own; cannot he be forced to acknowledge her?' 'Oh, never!' exclaimed Beatrice, springing from the ground, her cheek flushing with momentary scarlet, and her lip curved with a scorn which I had dreamed not it could possess. 'What! ask from the cold laws what his love refused! force my way into his stately home—that which he once delighted to say I should share—and dwell there to witness his angry brow and averted eye—to know that he loathed me as a heavy and hated chain! What would his name or rank avail me? I to cause him trouble or vexation! I, who even now would lay down my life but for his slightest pleasure! And yet he can leave me—can take pride in that which I share not! I, who have grudged, that the very flowers should spend their sweetness on the air, not on him! Oh, my father! have pity upon me, for God has none!' and again she sunk at his feet.

"'Hush, my poor child!' said the old man.