It proved utterly unintelligible to his younger listeners,
with the exception of the few offensive terms, already sufficiently
distinguished, and though Ellen better comprehended the meaning of the
herald, she appeared as little moved by his rhetoric as her
companions. At those passages which he intended should be tender and
affecting, the intelligent girl, though tortured by painful feelings,
had even manifested a disposition to laugh, while to the threats she
turned an utterly insensible ear.
"I know not the meaning of all you wish to say, Dr. Battius," she
quietly replied, when he had ended; "but I am sure if it would teach
me to betray my trust, it is what I ought not to hear. I caution you
to attempt no violence, for let my wishes be what they may, you see I
am surrounded by a force that can easily put me down, and you know, or
ought to know, too well the temper of this family, to trifle in such a
matter with any of its members, let them be of what sex or age they
may."
"I am not entirely ignorant of human character," returned the
naturalist, prudently receding a little from the position, which he
had, until now, stoutly maintained at the very base of the hill.
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