Page:The White Slave, or Memoirs of a Fugitive.djvu/48

. She added, that when he was told of our intended marriage, he had declared that Gassy was too pretty a girl to be thrown away upon such a scoundrel, and that he would undertake to provide her with a much better husband. So her mistress had bidden her to think no more of me; but at the same time, had told her not to cry, for she would never leave off teasing her father, till he had fulfilled his promise; "and if you get a husband," the young lady added, "that you know is all that any of us want." So thought the mistress; the maid, I have reason to suppose, was rather more refined in her notions of matrimony. I was not quite certain how to interpret this conduct of colonel Moore's.

I was strongly inclined to consider it, only as a new out-break of that spite and hostility, which I had been experiencing ever since my useless and foolish appeal to his fatherly feelings. It occurred to me however as possible, that his opposition to our marriage might spring from other motives. Whatever I might imagine, I kept my own counsel. One motive which occurred to me, I could not think of myself, with the slightest patience; and still less could I bear to shock and distress poor Gassy, by the mention of it. Another motive, which I thought might possibly have influenced colonel Moore, was less discreditable to him, and would have been flattering to the pride of both Gassy and myself. But this, I could not mention, without leading to disclosures, which I did not see fit to make.

Cassy knew herself to be colonel Moore's daughter; but early in our acquaintance, I had discovered that she had no idea, that I was his son. I have every reason to believe, that Mrs Moore was perfectly well informed as to both these particulars; for they were of that sort, which seldom or never escape the eagerness of female curiosity, and more especially, the curiosity of a wife.

Whatever she might know, she discovered in it no impediment to my marriage with Gassy. Nor did I; for how could that same regard for the decencies of life — such is the soft phrase which justifies the most unnatural cruelty — that refused to acknowledge our paternity, or to recognize any relationship between us, pretend at the same time, and on the sole ground of relationship, to forbid our union?