In going off, Elsie turned, smiled on Magnus, and said: “If I do not return in half an hour, Dr. Hardcastle, you must seek me out,” and, bowing playfully, she went on. “Was that done to insult me, Miss Garnet?” “No, dearest father, it was done out of respect to Dr. Hardcastle; as you forgot to excuse yourself to him for taking me off so abruptly, it would have been scarcely courteous in me to have left him without a word. We would not have treated a common acquaintance so, father.” “A common acquaintance! And pray what more is Dr. Hardcastle entitled henceforth to be considered?” “As my husband, and as your son-in-law, father.” General Garnet turned pale, and spoke low, with suppressed rage: “Your husband, and my son-in-law! I—would—see—him—and—you—in the lowest pit of h——l first!” Elsie gave a violent start as this awful word struck her like a bullet. It was the more awful, that Elsie had never known her father to forget himself so far before. Violence shocked her, profanity revolted her; she was unaccustomed to either. Her father, even in his tyranny, was habitually polite. Her mother was ever gentle. Fury, threats, were strange to her; and now came this terrible burst of passion, the more terrible for its half suppression. She gazed at him in alarm. His face was white with anger, but it reminded her of the white ashes upon a burning coal. He continued in the same deep, stern tone: “How dared you even receive that young man’s attentions, after I have withdrawn my countenance of him?” “Father, because his attentions were my right and his right. Who else, in your absence, could have attended me with so much propriety?” asked Elsie, trembling in her flesh, but firm in her spirit. “Do not commit the impertinence of answering my question by asking another again, Miss Garnet. A question which, impertinent as it was, I will answer. ‘Who,’ you inquire, ‘in my absence, could have attended you with so much propriety?’ I reply, Mr. Lionel Hardcastle, the gentleman under whose protection I placed you for the evening.” “And who wickedly abused his position by addressing the words of love to one whom he knew to be Dr. Hardcastle’s betrothed wife.” “Death! if you say that again,” exclaimed General Garnet, trembling with fury. “And whom,” continued Elsie, frightened, but resolute, “I had therefore to dismiss as soon as I found Dr. Hardcastle.” He grasped her arm with a violence that might have crushed it. He set his teeth, and drew his breath hard. He could not shake or beat her there—not in that room full of company—among those hundreds of people. He could not even let them see the rage that was on the eve of explosion. He looked around. Seeing Lionel Hardcastle at a short distance, he beckoned him to approach, and, without relinquishing his vise-like grip, said, in a deep, hurried tone: “Do me the favor to call my carriage, sir, instantly, if you please.”