Alice Wilde: The Raftsman's Daughter. A Forest Romance

								

are prone--but upon nothing so beautiful as the mistress of them all,
who now moved from place to place, lifting a costly toy here, pausing
before a picture there, but really interested in neither.
"Virginia!"
Her cousin Philip had come in through the library so silently that she
was unaware of his presence until he spoke, although it was waiting for
him which had made her so uneasy.
"Well, Philip?"
She had started when he spoke her name, but recovered her haughty
self-possession immediately.
"Sit down, please, on this sofa. I can not talk to you when you are
standing. You look too cold and too imperious. I have come to-day for
your answer, Virginia."
They sat upon the sofa together, he turning so as to read her face,
which was bent down as she played with the diamond ring upon her
finger. She looked cool and quiet enough to dampen the ardor of her
lover; but he was so absorbed in his own feelings that he could not and
would not understand it.
"Speak, Virginia! I can not bear this suspense."
Still she hesitated; she liked him too well to take any pleasure in
giving him pain, frivolous coquette though she was.
"I have questioned my heart closely, Philip, as you bade me," she began
after a few moments, "and I have satisfied myself that I can never be
happy as the wife of a poor man."
"Then you do not love me! Love does not put itself in the scales and
demand to be balanced with gold."
"But gold is very necessary to its welfare and long life. No, Philip, I
do not know that I love you--perhaps I do not--since I am not willing
to make this sacrifice. I certainly think better of you than of any
other living man, except my father; I would rather marry you than any
other man, if you had the wealth necessary to support me in the station
for which only I am fitted. A young man, with nothing to rely upon but
the profession of the law, in a great city like this, must expect to
wait some time before he can pour many honors and much wealth into the
lap of the woman he loves."
"You are sarcastic, Virginia!"
"No, only practical. My father is not so rich as in days gone by. His
fortune has dwindled until it is barely sufficient to keep up the house
in the old style. If I would still preserve the family pride, still
rule queen of the circle I have brought around me, I must marry rich."
"And for this you can resign a love like mine."
"It is my nature, Philip--born in me, cherished in me. My father, I
know, would not listen to the match, as highly as he esteems you. I had
a sister, a woman when I was a child--you remember her, do you not?
she married against his will, married poor, and tried this 'love in a
cottage' sentiment--he never forgave her, and she never prospered; she
is dead, poor thing, and I do not care to emulate her."
"Humph! I am to understand that your father then rears his children as
slaves to be sold to the highest bidder--that you hold yourself ready