" That was the form on which she had
determined, should she find herself able to yield. But she had not
brought herself to it as yet. "If you can take me, Mary, you
will,--well,--save me from lifelong misery, and make the man who loves
you the best-contented and the happiest man in England."
"But, Larry, I do not love you"
"I will make you love me. Good usage will make a wife love her
husband. Don't you think you can trust me?"
"I do believe that I can trust you for everything good."
"Is that nothing?"
"It is a great deal, Larry, but not enough;--not enough to bring
together a man and woman as husband and wife. I would sooner marry
a man I loved, though I knew he would ill-use me."
"Would you?"
"To marry either would be wrong."
"I sometimes think, dearest, that if I could talk better I should
be better able to persuade you."
"I sometimes think you talk so well that I ought to be persuaded;--
but I can't. It is not lack of talking."
"What is it, then?"
"Just this;--my heart does not turn itself that way. It is the same
chance that has made you--partial to me."
"Partial! Why, I love the very air you breathe. When I am near you,
everything smells sweet. There isn't anything that belongs to you
but I think I should know it, though I found it a hundred miles
away. To have you in the room with me would be like heaven,--if I
only knew that you were thinking kindly of me.
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