父亲对女儿的真实想法

“I am an old man,” said Melbury, “whom, somewhat late in life, God thought fit to blesswith one child, and she a daughter. Her mother was a very dear wife to me, but she wastaken away from us when the child was young, and the child became precious as the appleof my eye to me, for she was all I had left to love. For her sake entirely I married as secondwife a homespun woman who had been kind as a mother to her. In due time the question ofher education came on, and I said, ‘I will educate the maid well, if I live upon bread to doit.’ Of her possible marriage I could not bear to think, for it seemed like a death that sheshould cleave to another man, and grow to think his house her home rather than mine. But Isaw it was the law of nature that this should be, and that it was for the maid’s happinessthat she should have a home when I was gone; and I made up my mind without a murmurto help it on for her sake. In my youth I had wronged my dead friend, and to make amends Idetermined to give her, my most precious possession, to my friend’s son, seeing that theyliked each other well. Things came about which made me doubt if it would be for mydaughter’s happiness to do this, inasmuch as the young man was poor, and she wasdelicately reared. Another man came and paid court to her—one her equal in breeding andaccomplishments; in every way it seemed to me that he only could give her the home whichher training had made a necessity almost. I urged her on, and she married him. But,ma’am, a fatal mistake was at the root of my reckoning. I found that this well-borngentleman I had calculated on so surely was not stanch of heart, and that therein lay adanger of great sorrow for my daughter. Madam, he saw you, and you know the rest....I havecome to make no demands—to utter no threats; I have come simply as a father in greatgrief about this only child, and I beseech you to deal kindly with my daughter, and to donothing which can turn her husband’s heart away from her forever. Forbid him yourpresence, ma’am, and speak to him on his duty as one with your power over him well cando, and I am hopeful that the rent between them may be patched up. For it is not as if youwould lose by so doing; your course is far higher than the courses of a simple professionalman, and the gratitude you would win from me and mine by your kindness is more than Ican say.”