"
"She _is_ a lovely woman; but, my son, there are myriads like her."
"No _not one_! Tell me you will never breathe a word of what you
have told me _to her_!"
"Never."
"Oh! thank you! thank you, mother! you could not wish another
daughter."
"But for that I have told you, I could not wish another."
"Then I say you must not work this great injustice on us. Rosalie
loves me. She has promised to be mine. You will break my heart."
"You are deluded and strongly excited, my son, or you would never
speak so to me," said the mother, with that persisting firmness with
which the physician resorts to a desperate remedy for a desperate
disease. Then she spoke to him of all the relations in life he might
yet be called upon to assume; of the misery which very possibly
might follow this union in after days. Hours passed on, and the
conference was not ended, until, with a crushed heart, and a
trembling voice, Duncan arose, abruptly, while his mother yet spoke,
and he said,
"If the conclusion to which you have urged me, in God's sight, is
just, He will give me--He will give Rosalie, too--strength to abide
by it. But I can never speak to her of this, and I must find another
home than yours and hers.
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