"
"Congrat--Oh, do be serious! It doesn't matter what I am to-day, David;
it's what I was such a little while ago. I am not trying to belittle
myself. _I_ am proud of what I am. Don't misunderstand me. I am a
Portman! _Her_ blood is in me--her mind, her soul. But I am not all
Portman. Suppose, David--suppose that my father were to come back some
day. We know what he is--what he was. Perhaps the world may have
forgotten, but suppose that he reminds the world of the fact that he is
my father--"
"Christine! You are working yourself into a dreadful state over all
this--"
"Am I not calm? Am I excited? No; you see I am not."
"Dearest, I want you to be my wife. You urge me to think in time.
Haven't I thought it all out? What more is there for me to think
about, save my love for you? You are not presenting new conditions to
me, sweetheart. They are old ones. I do not intend that either of us
shall sail under false colors. When you go to Jenison Hall as my wife,
it shall also be as the daughter of Thomas Braddock, the showman."
"But, David, he may have fallen so low--he may have sunk to the very
lowest--oh, you must understand.
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