“ ‘You did, or I should not have been here, clandestinely, tonight.’

“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.’