old grandfather were to beseech you on his knees to abandon your fatal
project."

"You would cause me fearful pain, dear papa: but it would be all in
vain; for I must resist your prayers, as I must resist your orders."

"Inexorable!" cried the old gentleman. "She is immovable!" And suddenly
changing his tone, he cried,--

"But, after all, I am master here."

"Dear papa, pray!"

"And since nothing can move you, I will speak to Mechinet, I will let
Blangin know my will."

Dionysia, turning as pale as death, but with burning eyes, drew back a
step, and said,--

"If you do that, grandpapa, if you destroy my last hope"--

"Well?"

"I swear to you by the sacred memory of my mother, I will be in a
convent to-morrow, and you will never see me again in your life, not
even if I should die, which would certainly soon"--

M. de Chandore, raising his hands to heaven, and with an accent of
genuine despair, exclaimed,--