Crime & punishment > Peveril of the peak, or, The days of Charles II

PEVERIL OF THE PEAK.
Major B. Now known to you for the first time!
Am I so to understand you ?
Jul. By no means. I have been known to you 1
daughter for many years; and—
Major B. And have been long attached
Jul. Sir!
Major B. Think you, young man, the father i
an only child,—the last fond pledge of a departej
wife,—would place that child in this secluded spe
without the surest knowledge of her actions ?
Jul. Then, if my passion has been so long know;
to you, may I hope your approbation ?
Major B. Had I deemed your visits here of daii f
gerous tendency, my child, ere this, had been re r
moved.
Jul. Then, may I dare ?
Major B. Young man, hear me :—You doubi
less know, that, in the Protector’s time, I was th
antagonist of your father’s principles, though not tlj
enemy of his person.
Jul. I have heard you were my father’s frien r
and neighbour.
Major B. Ay; when he was in affliction, and
in prosperity, my services—my property, were
command. He repaid me, by shielding from m
resentment the cruel Countess of Derby; at whos
command the brother of my beloved wife
traitor, shot to death within the courts of Holm Pet
Castle. Chance placed the murderess in my grasp
It was your father, Julian, whose weapon gleam!
against my throat, and saved her from my
geance.
Jul. Had she thrown herself before him for
tection ?
Major B. Julian; it is not in the bitterness q
heart I now recal your father’s conduct, but to provi