The sentiments which your father has expressed towards me, are of a nature irreconcilable with hostile purposes.

If he is not offended with the bold wishes I may have formed,--and his whole behaviour shows the contrary,--I know not a man on earth from whom I have less cause to apprehend any danger or ill-will." "My father," said Alice, "means well by his country, and well by you; yet I sometimes fear he may rather injure than serve his good cause; and still more do I dread, that in attempting to engage you as an auxiliary, he may forget those ties which ought to bind you, and I am sure which will bind you, to a different line of conduct from his own." "You lead me into still deeper darkness, Alice," answered Peveril.

"That your father's especial line of politics differs widely from mine, I know well; but how many instances have occurred, even during the bloody scenes of civil warfare, of good and worthy men laying the prejudice of party affections aside, and regarding each other with respect, and even with friendly attachment, without being false to principle on either side ?" "It may be so," said Alice; "but such is not the league which my father desires to form with you, and that to which he hopes your misplaced partiality towards his daughter may afford a motive for your forming with him." "And what is it," said Peveril, "which I would refuse, with such a prospect before me ?" "Treachery and dishonour!" replied Alice; "whatever would render you unworthy of the poor boon at which you aim--ay, were it more worthless than I confess it to be." "Would your father," said Peveril, as he unwillingly received the impression which Alice designed to convey,--"would he, whose views of duty are so strict and severe--would he wish to involve me in aught, to which such harsh epithets as treachery and dishonour can be applied with the lightest shadow of truth ?" "Do not mistake me, Julian," replied the maiden; "my father is incapable of requesting aught of you that is not to his thinking just and honourable; nay, he conceives that he only claims from you a debt, which is due as a creature to the Creator, and as a man to your fellow-men." "So guarded, where can be the danger of our intercourse ?" replied Julian.

"If he be resolved to require, and I determined to accede to, nothing save what flows from conviction, what have I to fear, Alice?
And how is my intercourse 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 with 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 misjudge my father's powers, and his purpose with respect to you, and who overrate your own powers of resistance.