Muriel Colwood,
glancing at her, went away with the tears in her eyes, and at last the
stumbling fingers broke the seal.
"MY DEAR MISS MALLORY,--I want you to understand why it is
that I must oppose your marriage with my son. You know well,
I think, how gladly I should have welcomed you as a daughter
but for this terrible revelation. As it is, I cannot consent
to the engagement, and if it is carried out Oliver must
renounce the inheritance of his father's fortune. I do not
say this as any vulgar threat. It is simply that I cannot
allow my husband's wealth to be used in furthering what he
would never have permitted. He had--and so have I--the
strongest feeling as to the sacredness of the family and its
traditions. He held, as I do, that it ought to be founded in
mutual respect and honor, and that children should have round
about them the help that comes from the memory of unstained
and God-fearing ancestors. Do you not also feel this? Is it
not a great principle, to which personal happiness and
gratification may justly be sacrificed? And would not such a
sacrifice bring with it the highest happiness of all?
"Do not think that I am cruel or hard-hearted.
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