"Do you hesitate ?" he cried in accents of deep disappointment, perceiving Jocelyn waver.
"You cannot misunderstand his wishes, father," said Aveline.
"Let him speak for himself," Hugh Calveley exclaimed angrily.

"Jocelyn Mounchensey!" he continued, folding his arms upon his breast, and regarding the young man fixedly as before, "son of my old friend! son of him who died in my arms! son of him whom I committed to the earth! if thou hast aught of thy father's true spirit, thou wilt rigidly adhere to a pledge voluntarily given, and which, uttered as it was uttered by thee, has all the sanctity, all the binding force of a vow before Heaven, where it is registered, and approved by him who is gone before us." Greatly moved by this appeal, Jocelyn might have complied with it, but Aveline again interposed.
"Not so, father," she cried.

"The spirits of the just made perfect--and of such is the friend you mention--would never approve of the design with which you would link this young man, in consequence of a promise rashly made.

Discharge him from it, I entreat you." Her energy shook even the Puritan's firmness.
"Be it as thou wilt, daughter," he said, after the pause of a few moments, during which he waited for Jocelyn to speak; but, as the young man said nothing, he rightly interpreted his silence,--"be it as thou wilt, since he, too, wills it so.

I give him back his promise.