The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1866-12-25

her daughters face. CANCEL" she said, in
the sharp, peremptory tones natural to her,
"you will not be such fool as to throw
away such a chance as this. Why did you
not tell me before ?"
Perhaps, because do intend to be the
fool you take me for. Perhaps, because,
loving another man, penniless man. as I
do, I do not intend to sell myself to that
untamed cub, Reginald Hautain, as the
highest bidder in the marriage market as
yet: Perhaps, because I am 50 well suited
to live on a hundred year, that I SIN not
likely to throw away such a chance as that.
What say you, mother? you shall decide
for me in this difficult matter I promise
to abide by your decision Shall / marry
Reginald, or Stephen Hautain? Either Of
them would have me tomorrow
Angels countenance, to tell the truth,
belied her name as she uttered these words,
standing opposite to her mother, with
lurid light in her fine eyes, and the demon
spirit of scorn sitting on her short curled
lip. Mrs. Temple, who did not understand
her daughters temper in the least, or see
how fercely the two opposite currents of
worldliness and nobility were struggling for
the mastery il her breast, only recognized
the fact that, IN leaving the matter to be
decided by her mother, she was reaching
out her hand to grasp the profered coronet,
which had SO many charms for the matron-
y heart; and she answered rather coldly,
for she despised the imputed motive
sit is mere farce your asking me
to decide, Angel, between Reginald and
Stephen. You know that I would rather
see you in your grave than mated with pow
terty and disgrace
"You know, mother, how widely our no
tions differ on this point; if you wish me to
obey you, you must not shirk the point. IF
you wish me to sell myself to Reginald
Hautain, for the prospect Of coronet and
ten thousand year, you must say 50 in 50
many words. I am not Of age-it is not
my own doing. You must say distinctly,
4 Angel, it is my wish, that, without enter
tanning spark Of affection for him, and
loving another man from the depths Of your
soul, that you marry Reginald Hautain for
the sake Of the rank and the wealth that
will one day be his Why should we not
all say exactly what we mean? have
said my say, but nothing will alter my de
termination. The choice remains with you,
1 mother (The last word was said with a
dash Of that bitterness which Byron has
thrown into is when on the lips Of the de-
formed boy,t was born 50 mother. ~ The
crooked and distorted body, or the crooked
and distorted mind, should be;the last In
tfrmitiesT with which mother should re-
proach her child; and, in Angels case, the
stress she laid upon the Wordeseemed to say,
I sIf am base, it is to q mothers influence
that that baseness is to be attributed; let
her be the? last to condemn"
4 CANCEL, said Mrs Temple, looking her
young daughter straight in. her face as she
(:spoke the words, ssyou have placed the re-
sponsaability on my shoulders in this mat
ter, and I have no objection to take it, I: !
lay MY commands upon you to accept Re
ginald1 Hautain''s offer if he proposes to you
1 tonight, or at any subsequent time; and in
Esaying 80, know that I am echoeing your
|papa' S wishes: He; has spoken to me on the
|subject more than onoe::' l'1:i
avery well. a. st;-.NiTa 81 a.:- z
This was all that Angel Temple, said.
j Her mind had Of course been made up be.
fore, to reject the man who loved her, as
she had herself affirmed, as his own soul,
4 and to take for her husband one, against
whose coarse and brutal nature Her + own re-
volted, merely because he was an elder son,
and heir to the barony Of Hautain Angel
was naturally ambitious, and she had been
brought up ~ ! worldly mother; but that
every wen cost her the anguish Of heart
too noble to reconcile itself at once to. the
disgracefui role assigned to It to play. j
have said that her mind had been distorted
7 BY the faults Of her education, and she had
:cajoled herself into tie miserable belief
that SIZE had now placed hef future con
duct, with regard both to Stephen and Re:
ginald, on the score Of duty to her parents
and TO herself: Miserable Bophiistry that
had not balm enough 70 heal the slightest
Wound amongst the many that followed up
81 those simple words: Poor Angefl least
angelic, when YOU sacrificed yourself on the
altar that was not the altar Of duty, and
'bound. yourself with cords to the horns, II II
the shrine Of Mar.mon- -despicable in the
fsight Of God, and Of yourself, ii all, saving
,your beauty, you were little Of an angel