| Object ID |
A1 |
| Object Name |
Painting |
| Dimensions |
H-19 W-13 inches |
| Early Date |
1925 |
| Late Date |
1926 |
| Description |
“You seemed disposed to trifle with my feelings, Miss Hendee,” rejoined Sherwood, growing restless. “I wish for a direct answer, whether you will or will not fulfill your engagement with me.”
“A direct answer, sir, then you shall have; and I will add, I feel not a little grateful for being, for the first time since my acquaintance with you, allowed the opportunity of giving one. Mr. Sherwood, I shall never voluntarily unite my destinies with yours.”
“Surely you would not break a solemn engagement?”
“A passive acquiescence — a tacit consent, wrung from me by the force of circumstances, is, as you well know, sir, all the engagement that you can claim of me. And even that, your conscience must tell you, you have long since forfeited by your own conduct.”
“Are you prepared, miss, for the consequences which may follow the step you seem determined on taking?”
“You do well, sir, I acknowledge, to remind me of that consideration,” bitterly retorted the indignant maiden; “for I am aware that it is no light matter to brave the revenge of one who could instigate the assassination of a supposed rival.”
Sherwood started as if stung by an adder, at the damning truth of the allusion. His face became fairly livid with suppressed rage and chagrin, and biting his bloodless lips, he rose and slunk out of the apartment, as would a demon from the presence of some pure being from the skies, without uttering one word in his own defense, or even lifting his eyes to the withering countenance which was bent upon him with a look of mingled pity, abhorrence, and contempt. Leaving the house, the discomfited villain immediately sought Captain Hendee in an adjoining field, for the purpose of instigating the old gentleman to measures of compulsion upon the refractory daughter, in furtherance of his designs. But here, also, he was unexpectedly doomed to disappointment and defeat. Upon Alma’s return to the house, after the receipt of the communication exposing the baseness of Sherwood, she had sought an interview with her father, read him the letter, frankly confessed her own feelings, and disclosed all she knew, not only the course and conduct of Sherwood, hut also that of Warrington, for a part of which she was indebted to her fair companion, who in turn received it from her lover, Selden, the intimate of Warrington. And among the rest, she had made known to the astonished father the magnanimous conduct of the latter in regard to his ownership of the land on which they resided, the circumstance of which she herself had never been apprised till that very evening. And although the old gentleman had listened to her disclosures without uttering a single word in reply, from which she could learn his opinions on the subject, her communications, nevertheless, had produced a deep impression on his mind and feelings, that were now fluctuating back and forth, like contending currents of the wind, when but a slight impulse is required to turn them back in fury in a direction exactly the reverse from that in which they commenced blowing.
“I little expected. Captain Hendee,” said Sherwood with the air of an injured man, as he approached the other, “I little expected, sir, when I arrived here to have met with the reception which I have just received from your daughter.
“Why, what’s the matter, sir — what’s the matter?” replied the captain, with an air of indifference.
“The matter, sir? Why, your daughter refuses to fulfill her engagement to me, sir.”
“Ah! what reasons did she give for that, sir?”
“No good reasons, sir. She has been listening to the tales of slanderers — some enemy has been prejudicing her mind against me, by falsehoods — utter falsehoods, sir!”
“Or has she not heard rather more truth about your maneuvers than you intended should have reached her ears? Come now, be honest, Jake, and tell me.”
“Are you, too, in the league against me? Am I to understand that you, too, justify her in this course?” hastily demanded Sherwood, nettled at the cool, indifferent manner of the other, as much as at the blunt severity involved in his question. “I had little expected this from you, sir! I should have supposed the interest of your family would prompt you to a different course.”
“Hinging on my obligations, are you, sir?” said the captain, turning fiercely on the other, with eyes flashing indignation. “Look ye, Jake Sherwood, I have, from the very first, used all reasonable exertions with my daughter to reconcile her to this match. And even more, I have done that which, when I have looked upon her fading face, and knew that she was martyring her own heart to please me, has smitten my conscience for years. And now I am resolved to leave her to make her own decisions, unbiased by word of mine. And as to your threats, sir, all I have to say is, go, and do your worst! Take all there is here to yourself, if that will satisfy you; or go join the enemies of your country, as I have long suspected you intended, and bring them down upon us to murder and destroy, if you choose. But don’t think to buy and bribe me to sell my own flesh and blood! And don’t come here again, sir, with accusations against us, till you can come with cleaner hands. Goodmorning, sir!”
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| Credit |
Gift of Thos. Nelson & Sons |
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