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Show in my father's house/ 277 trembled, his cheek and mouth working spasmodically. I watched from the hallway, frightened at what my father would say next. I put my hands over my mouth, praying silently for no more difficulty between my father and my mother's children. My father reached for a deck of cards and shuffled them. He laid them out for solitaire, his favored pastime at my mother's house. "You are making a grave error," he said at last. "I loved a young woman, too, and I married her. But she opposed the Principle and she rejected my position as head of the house. It cost me my wife and my children." Jake cleared his throat, "This is different, Daddy. I'm not you." "It isn't the girl we object to," my father continued. "She's a fine, sweet girl. But you're trading your eternal blessing for her. You know that he who rejects the knowledge you've been given will be damned. People all over the world would give their limbs to have what you've been given as a gift of growing up in this household. And you reject it for this girl." "Not reject it, Daddy. If we feel it's the right thing, we'll go that way. We just don't feel it now." My father shook his head. "What a risk you're taking!" He gathered up the cards and shuffled again. "She's worth it, Daddy. Do we have your blessing?" My father shook his head again. "It's like trading a million dollars in silver certificates for a shiny new penny." Jake jumped up and stood over my father. "She's not a shiny new penny!" he shouted. Tears rained on his contorted face, "i love her! I want to marry her! And I will marry her |