Page:The Cottagers of Glenburnie - Hamilton (1808).djvu/327

 unkind a father, that you should thus break from my arms, to rush into the arms of—you know not whom? But I mean not to upbraid you. I only mean to tell you, that however faulty, nay, however guilty, you may have been, your father's arms are still open to receive you, and that peace still waits you in your father's house."

"Pray, sir," cried Mr Flinders, interrupting him; "pray think of your daughter's character; after Mollins's declaration, it would be ruined, absolutely ruined."

"And will such a marriage as this wipe out the stain?" returned my father. "Is it not saying to the world, that after having sacrificed delicacy and modesty at the shrine of folly, she stooped to solder her reputation by a falsehood? No, no. If she is thus sunk, thus degraded, let her, by humility and penitence, purify her own heart, and mine shall be open to receive her. Come my child, my Isabell; come to that home where no upbraidings"—