died than to sink daily deeper in the mire of this pit of woman's

degradation. But is escape conceivable? Your father tried; and

you beheld yourself with what security his jailers acted, and how a

dumb drawing on a rock was counted a sufficient sentry over the

avenues of freedom. Where your father failed, will you be wiser or

more fortunate? or are you, too, helpless in the toils?'

I had followed his words with changing emotion, but now I believed

I understood.

'I see,' I cried; 'you judge me rightly. I must follow where my

parents led; and oh! I am not only willing, I am eager!'

'No,' replied the doctor, 'not death for you. The flawed vessel we

may break, but not the perfect. No, your mother cherished a

different hope, and so do I. I see,' he cried, 'the girl develop

to the completed woman, the plan reach fulfilment, the promise--ay,

outdone! I could not bear to arrest so lively, so comely a

process. It was your mother's thought,' he added, with a change of

tone, 'that I should marry you myself.' I fear I must have shown a

perfect horror of aversion from this fate, for he made haste to

quiet me. 'Reassure yourself, Asenath,' he resumed. 'Old as I am,

I have not forgotten the tumultuous fancies of youth. I have

passed my days, indeed, in laboratories; but in all my vigils I

have not forgotten the tune of a young pulse. Age asks with

timidity to be spared intolerable pain; youth, taking fortune by

the beard, demands joy like a right. These things I have not

forgotten; none, rather, has more keenly felt, none more jealously

considered them; I have but postponed them to their day. See,

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