Crime & punishment > Peveril of the Peak > Volume 2

PEVBRIL OF THE PEAK.
85
“So guarded, where can be the danger of
our intercourse?replied Julian. “If he be re¬
solved to require, and I determined to accede to,
nothing save what flows from conviction, what
have I to fear, Alice? and how is my inter¬
course with your father dangerous? Believe not
so; his speech has already made impression on
me in some particulars, and he listened with
candour and patience to the objections which I
made occasionally. You do Master Bridgenorth
less than justice in confounding him wdth the
unreasonable bigots in policy and religion, who
can listen to no argument but what favours their
own prepossessions.’^
“Julian,’’ replied Alice, “it is you who mis¬
judge my father’s powers, and his purpose with
respect to you, and who overrate your own
powers of resistance, I am but a girl, but J
have been taught by circumstances to think for
myself, and to consider the character of those
who are around me. My father’s views in eccle¬
siastical and civil policy, are as dear to him as
the life which he cherishes only to advance them.
They have been, with little alteration, his com¬
panions through life. They brought him at one
period indo prosperity, and when they suited not
the times, he suffered for having held them.
They have become not only a part, but the very
dearest part, of his existence. If he shews them
not to you at first, in the inflexible strength
which they have acquired over his mind, do not