"In my power!" repeated Madeline.
"Yes; accept my offers, and all that the most duteous, the most tender son could do for a father, I will do for your's."
"And think you (said Madeline), my father would thank me for freedom and security, if purchased by dishonour? no, believe me he would not; I know his soul too well—know that death, in its most frightful form, would not be half so dreadful to him as the knowledge of his daughter's infamy:—never then will that daughter deviate from the path he early in life marked out for her to take:—never then, though surrounded by dangers and difficulties,—the dangers, the difficulties of him who is dearer, infinitely dearer to her than existence, will she act contrary to the principles he implanted in her mind, or forego her hopes of Heaven's protection, by striving to attain safety at the expense of virtue."
"Your resolution is then fixed," said D'Alembert.
"It is," replied Madeline in a firm voice.
