“Hush! hush! Hagar! Never think such thoughts—ask such questions. He loves you, Hagar—has loved you long with a constancy I have never seen equalled but in one instance. He loved you—let me speak plainly, Hagar, for your sake and his—he loved you when you were a very _un_lovely child—at least to every one but me.—Well, he loved you, and sought and gained your love. You gave yourself away to him, and now he very naturally expects you to conform your manners to his tastes. Hagar, if liberty were dearer to you than love, you should never have given yourself to a husband. But that is not so—you know it—it is only your struggle, now—and, Hagar, this struggle, this resistance of your pride, _must cease_. Listen! Oh, Hagar!” said she, with unaccustomed energy, “listen to me—to _me_. I love you, and have no possible interest except your own welfare, in what I say to you. Your pride must be subdued—it must!—_must!_ If you do not subdue it _yourself_, _he_ will, with cruel pain to you. Raymond’s demands are all reasonable; such requirements are usual—in your case any man would make them—but in one thing Raymond differs from most men that I know—in the possession of an indomitable WILL. In my long acquaintance with him, when my faculties were mature, and yours in the green bud, I have had an opportunity of seeing and knowing this. I am afraid _you_ have mistaken him—with all his fair complexion and golden hair; in that beautiful form lives calmly an immensity of force, an eternity of purpose, almost omnipotent in its repose, and that it would be vain to look for in more impetuous, seemingly stronger natures; a power that is calmly, silently surrounding you. You feel it—do not struggle against it—you cannot overcome it, cannot escape from it, and it will never be withdrawn—it will close around you.—Yield gracefully to it! To your submission it will be a loving embrace—to your proud resistance it will be a galling chain; cease the struggle, Hagar, and be still.” “Never! never! never!” exclaimed the proud girl, while her brow flushed to crimson as by the smite of shame.