"
"Nay, my queen, you were too duteous to hearken to me when I was rich
and prosperous. I would not torment you then, I meant to be patient;
but now I am poor and going into banishment, you will be generous and
compassionate, and let me hear the one word that will make my exile
sweet."
"I don't think I ought," said the poor child under her breath. "0,
Robert, don't you know I ought not."
"Would you if that ugly cypher of an ought did not stand in the way?"
"Oh don't ask me, Robert; I don't know."
"But I do know, my queen," said he. "I know my little Essie better
than she knows herself. I know her true heart is mine, only she
dares not avow it to herself; and when hearts have so met, Esther,
they owe one another a higher duty than the filial tie can impose."
"I never heard that before," she said, puzzled, but not angered.
"No, it is not a doctrine taught in schoolrooms, but it is true and
universal for all that, and our fathers and mothers acted on it in
their day, and will give way to it now."
Esther had never been told all her father's objections to her cousin.
Simple prohibition had seemed to her parents sufficient for the
gentle, dutiful child. Bobus had always been very kind to her, and
her heart went out enough to him in his trouble to make coldness
impossible to her.
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