“You must not, and shall not now interpose your will between mine and a most important object I have in view,” he cried, sternly. “Listen--it is necessary that you should marry----” “No--oh! no--no--no!” she gasped. “I say,” continued her father, “that the necessity is imperious. “I cannot.” “You shall.” “I dare not.” “Dare not! Listen--hear what there is need for you to dare. Helen, I am a beggar!” Helen almost shrieked; he uttered those words in a tone so frightful. “Yes,” he repeated; “I stand on the verge of bankruptcy--beggary--God knows what horrors! you can save me.” Helen clasped her hands, and sobbed convulsively. “You, Helen, can, I swear to you, save me--your mother--the house itself, from destruction and disgrace. My Lord Elsingham, whom you met at dinner, is a peer of enormous wealth; he has just expressed himself greatly prepossessed in your favour. It rests with you to follow up this favourable impression, and he is your own--the coronet of a peeress will grace your temples. Your sister will, I trust, win the Duke; and in these two marriages we may defy fate itself. You, Helen, will prove my salvation! Do only but this, and the agony of the past will be compensated by the splendour of the future.” It is not possible to depict Helen’s intense anguish on hearing this terrible revelation, or her horror to find that, even if prepared to sacrifice her heart to save her father’s credit, it would not now be possible to do so. She clasped her hands, and fell upon her knees before him. “Oh, sir! sir!” she moaned, in dire grief; “is there no other way to save you? None? None?” “Not one loophole to creep out of,” he cried, hoarsely. “Wilton had promised to share with me the estates we both claim. He has recalled that promise, and vast sums are now demanded of me, which I cannot pay. If, however, it is known that you are about to become the bride of one of the wealthiest peers in the kingdom, the harpies will wait, and I shall be rescued.” “Oh! avenging heaven!” she cried, “and I cannot do this to save them all!” “Helen!” cried her father, gripping her wrist hard, and hissing in her ear, “you must do this, _whatever may have happened!_ You must marry this peer. I ask you to reveal nothing. Keep your secret, but marry him you must, or ruin--disgrace--death--stares me in the face. Recover yourself--be composed, I leave you for a short time, or my absence will be remarked upon. When I come back, I shall find you cold, and firm, and calm--resolved, at _any_ price to carry out what I demand of you. Not a word! not a word!” As he spoke he put her from him. She would have clung entreatingly to him, not to exact from her a task so wholly impossible for her to fulfil. He hurried out of the room, and locked the door without, leaving her a prisoner there. In an agony of tears she reflected on her position.