Page:Glenarvon (Volume 1).djvu/142

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principle, obedience, humility.—But to all her confessions and remonstrances, he replied:—"I love, and you return my passion:—can we be otherwise than blest! You are the dearest object of my affection, my life, my hope, my joy. If you can live without me, which I do not believe, I cannot without you; and that is sufficient. Sorrows must come on all; but united together we can brave them.—My Calantha you torture me, but to try me. Were I to renounce you—were I to take you at your word, you, you would be the first to regret and to reproach me."—"It is but the name of wife I hate," replied the spoiled and wayward child.—"I must command:—my will."—"Your will, shall be my law," said Lord Avondale, as he knelt before her: "you shall be my mistress—my guide—my monitress—and I, a willing slave."—So spoke the man, who, like the girl he addressed, had died sooner than have yielded up his freedom, or his independence to