"No--no--_no_. I _can_not. I should not secure our happiness. I should
be miserable, and make you so."

"_Then_ I have nothing more to hope for. He will not give you to me,
and you will not come. Oh, Susie, how can you send me off? You know
you are all the world to me! If I lose you, I lose everything. I am
alone in the world. There are many loved ones to comfort your father,
until he comes to his better nature and calls you back to his heart.
Susie, am I to leave you forever?"

The beautiful dark eyes were looking into his, filled with so much
love. How could she resist?

"No--no. I shall die, if you leave me--never to come again! Oh, what
_am_ I to do? I love you better than my own life, Frank, indeed I do!
But, father--oh, how can I desert him? He loves me more than the
other children. I am the oldest, his first child, and so like what
mother was. That is _why_ he loves me so. And now _she_ has gone, I
_should_ stay--"

"And break your heart and mine, too, Susie?"

"If I thought, Frank, you would not mind it very long--"

"You would give me up! And, in time, get into your father's way of
thinking, and end by marrying the man he wants you to," Frank said,
withdrawing his arm and turning away with a great sigh.

"Oh, Frank, how _can_ you talk to me so?"