It was almost impossible to give up her own way and
wishes. Graydon Muir pleased her fancy, and she was bent on marrying
him. Her father's assurance that she would bring him disappointment,
not happiness, weighed little. Too many men had told her that she
was essential to their happiness to permit qualms on this score. Her
conscience did shrink, to some extent, from a loveless, business-like
marriage, and her preference for Graydon made such a union all the
more repugnant; but she was incapable of feeling that she would do him
a wrong by giving him the pretty jewelled hand for which so many had
asked. Indeed, the question now was, Could she be so self-sacrificing
as to think of it under the circumstances? If that stock would only
rise, if in some way she could be assured that the Muirs would be
sustained, and so pass on to the wealth sure to flow in upon them in
prosperous times, she would decide the question at once, whether they
would do anything for her father or not. He could scramble on in
some way, as he had done in the past. What she desired most was the
assurance that there should be no long and doubtful interregnum
of poverty and privation--that she might continue to be a queen in
society during the period of youth and beauty.
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