'
Amy listened without making any reply.
'You are silent, girl?' her father resumed; 'I thought you would be
delighted with the intelligence. Will you not be glad to exchange
this miserable hovel for a handsomely-furnished house? And you shall
have masters to instruct you in dancing, singing, and music; for I
expect that you will now have an opportunity of getting settled in
the rank of life in which you were born.'
Still Amy replied not.
'Well, you are the strangest girl I ever met with,' Beaufort pursued,
in tones indicative of rising wrath; 'but I see how it is. I have
suspected as much for some time. You would rather marry a beggarly
clerk. I can tell you, however, that Herbert Lyddiard is no husband
for you, and I positively forbid you to hold any further intercourse
with him or his mother.'
'Oh, father,' cried Amy in the agony of her feelings, now finding
utterance, 'can you require me to be so base as thus to treat a
friend who has been to me like a mother?'
'I have no personal objection to the woman, nor to her son either,
had I not reason to believe that he aspires to an alliance with you,'
he rejoined; adding: 'Now hear what I say, girl; I start for London
to-morrow, and shall send for you in a few days, during which time I
shall get a house prepared for your reception.
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