"
As she uttered the last words, which she did with an earnestness that
startled them, her fine features became illuminated, as it were, with
a serene and brilliant solemnity of expression that was strikingly
impressive and beautiful.
"Why couldn't you like him, now?" asked her father; "sure, as your
mother says, there's not his aquil for face or figure within many a mile
of him?"
"But it's neither face nor figure that I look to most, father."
"Well, but think of his wealth, and the style he'll live in, I'll go
bail, when he gets married."
"That style maybe won't make his wife happy. No, father, it's neither
face, nor figure, nor style that I look to, but truth, pure affection,
and upright principle; now, I know that Hycy Burke has neither truth,
nor affection, nor principle; an' I wondher, besides, that you could
think of my ever marrying a man that has already destroyed the happiness
of two innocent girls, an' brought desolation, an' sorrow, an' shame
upon two happy families. Do you think that I will ever become the wife
of a profligate? An' is it you, father, an' still more you, mother,
that's a woman, that can urge me to think of joining my fate to that of
a man that has neither shame nor principle? I thought that if you didn't
respect decency an' truth, and a regard for what is right and proper,
that, at all events, you would respect the feelings of your child that
was taught their value.
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