Again he took hold of the arm.
'One would think you were a Papist, father, and this the Inquisition,'
said Netta, growing learned under the torture of her father's grasp,
'Well said, Netta,' broke in Mr Jonathan, aroused by any allusion to any
subject out of the present. 'A cruel court that perhaps more properly
called Jesuitical than Papistical.'
Mr Prothero gave Netta a slight shake, which shook more passion into
both of them, and frightened Mrs Prothero.
'Once for all, Netta, will you promise to give up that scamp of a cousin
of yours, Howel Jenkins?' roared the father.
'I won't promise anything at all,' replied Netta doggedly; and freeing
herself from her father, she ran to her uncle as if for protection.
'You won't!' said Mr Prothero, pursuing her, 'then I tell you what it
is. The moment you are known to keep company with him, you may find some
other home than this; and if you determine to marry him, you shall be no
longer a daughter of mine. I'll never, as long as I live--'
'Hush, hush, David, hush, please,' said Mrs Prothero, putting her hand
on his arm. 'Netta will not disobey us, I am sure. But it is her
obstinate temper; she never would say anything she was commanded to
say.'
'Then you ought to have taught her better. She is a good-for-nothing
girl, and I'll--'
'Netta, you had better leave the room,' said Rowland, opening the door,
through which Netta gladly escaped. '"Fathers, provoke not your children
to wrath,"' he added, turning to his father. 'You will do nothing with
her at present. She is worked up to a spirit of resistance by too much
argument, and the more you say the more obstinate she will become.'
'You are all as obstinate as mules,' said Mr Prothero; 'I can't think
who you turn after. And then to have the impudence to say I was a
Papist! Why, I'd rather be a Methody preacher any day. And you to
encourage her, brother Jonathan. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.'
Brother Jonathan started up from his dream of Garn Goch and the
Inquisition, to repudiate the imputation of encouragement.
'I was merely glad to find that she knew anything about the Inquisition,
and had any information at all in her head; generally speaking, women
know so little. I assure you, David, it was far from me to wish to
encourage her in disobedience, or to offend you; so give me your hand.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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