Oh, mamma, pray don't."
"In a week's time or so you must tell Larry. After all that has
passed of course he won't expect to have to wait long, and you
can't ask him. Kate my dear,"--Kate had just entered the room, "go
into the office and tell your father to come into breakfast in five
minutes. You must know, Mary, and I insist on your telling me."
"When I said two months,--only it was he said two months--"
"What difference does it make, my dear?"
"It was only because he asked me to put it off. I knew it could
make no difference."
"Do you mean to tell me, Mary, that you are going to refuse him
after all?"
"I can't help it," said Mary, bursting out into tears.
"Can't help it! Did anybody ever see such an idiot since girls were
first created? Not help it, after having given him as good as a
promise! You must help it. You must be made to help it"
There was an injustice in this which nearly killed poor Mary. She
had been persuaded among them to put off her final decision, not
because she had any doubt in her own mind, but at their request,
and now she was told that in granting this delay she had "given as
good as a promise!" And her stepmother also had declared that she
"must be made to help it,"--or in other words be made to marry Mr.
Twentyman in opposition to her own wishes! She was quite sure that
no human being could have such right of compulsion over her.
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