All young
women learn their value soon enough. You ought to make a good match, a
brilliant match--if there were any chance for a girl in such a hole as
this. Marriage is your only hope, remember, Clarissa. Your future lies
between that and the drudgery of a governess's life. You have received an
expensive education--an education that will serve you in either case; and
that is all the fortune I can give you."
"I hope I may marry well, papa, for your sake; but--"
"Never mind me. You have only yourself to think about."
"But I never could marry any one I did not esteem, if the match were ever
such a brilliant one."
"Of course not. All schoolgirls talk like that; and in due course discover
how very little esteem has to do with matrimony. If you mean that you would
like to marry some penniless wretch of a curate, or some insolvent ensign,
for love, I can only say that the day of your marriage will witness our
final parting. I should not make any outrageous fuss or useless opposition,
rely upon it. I should only wish you good-bye."
Clarissa smiled faintly at this speech. She expected so little from her
father, that his hardest words did not wound her very deeply, nor did they
extinguish that latent hope, "He will love me some day."
"I trust I may never be so imprudent as to lose you for ever, like that,
papa.. I must shut my heart resolutely against curates."
"If bad reading is an abomination to you, you have only to open your ears.
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