I love your daughter, sir; and I came here for the
purpose of meeting her."
'Old Lobbs opened his eyes very wide at this, but not wider
than Nathaniel Pipkin.
'"You did?" said Lobbs, at last finding breath to speak.
'"I did."
'"And I forbade you this house, long ago."
'"You did, or I should not have been here, clandestinely,
to-night."
'I am sorry to record it of old Lobbs, but I think he would
have struck the cousin, if his pretty daughter, with her bright eyes
swimming in tears, had not clung to his arm.
'"Don't stop him, Maria," said the young man; "if he has the
will to strike me, let him. I would not hurt a hair of his gray head,
for the riches of the world."
'The old man cast down his eyes at this reproof, and they met
those of his daughter. I have hinted once or twice before, that
they were very bright eyes, and, though they were tearful now,
their influence was by no means lessened. Old Lobbs turned
his head away, as if to avoid being persuaded by them,
when, as fortune would have it, he encountered the face of
the wicked little cousin, who, half afraid for her brother, and
half laughing at Nathaniel Pipkin, presented as bewitching an
expression of countenance, with a touch of slyness in it, too, as
any man, old or young, need look upon.
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