Page:Heroines of freethought (IA cu31924031228699).pdf/269

Rh young girl's mind, while the honesty of her nature was such that she could not make a profession of faith which she had not; and open confession of her disbelief brought her soon into unpleasant relations with her father, who was sorely exercised by this apostasy on the part of one of his own flesh and blood.

Her mother had died when she was a child, and therefore the whole care of her education and teaching rested upon her father. He was at a loss how to manage this strange young girl, who had developed such an inconvenient way of thinking for herself. With masculine sagacity he bethought him of a sure method of silencing the doubts and queries of girlhood. He would give her in marriage to one of his own faith. With the new duties and womanly aims inspired by marriage, she would no longer have time to devote to religious speculations. Without her consent or desire, he, in virtue of his power as father and spiritual teacher, betrothed her to a young