My only
child, by the force of natural selection, bids fair to add to our
number a drunkard and a libertine; and I am powerless to prevent
it. The mother that should guard and guide her child, is blind to
everything save that he is rich. Froth and mud! Froth and mud!"
Unable to endure his thoughts, he went to his room and found oblivion
in the stupor of intoxication.
On reaching the end of the long piazza, Sibley led Ida to a veranda
little frequented at that hour, saying, as he did so:
"Let us get away from prying eyes. I always feel when with you
that three is an enormous crowd."
A gentleman who had been smoking rose hastily at this broad hint,
which he could not help overhearing, and walked haughtily away.
Ida, with a regret deeper than she could have thought possible, saw
that it was Van Berg. Her first impulse was to compel her companion
to go back; but that would look like following him. Weary, disheartened
by the fate that seemed ever against her, she sank into the chair
he had just vacated.
For a time she did not heed or scarcely hear Sibley's characteristic
flatteries, but at last he said plainly:
"Miss Ida, do you know that you are the one woman of all the world
to me?"
"Oh, hush!" she replied, rising.
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