' You see
I knew where to touch her!"
"It is dreadful you should have to speak like that to your mother!"
"It is; but you would feel to her just as I do if you knew all--though
you wouldn't speak so roughly, I know."
"Can you guess what she has in her mind?"
"Not in the least. She will pretend anything. It is enough that she is
determined to part us. How, she cares nothing, so she succeed."
"But she cannot!"
"It rests with you."
"How with me?"
"It will be war to the knife between her and me. If she succeed, it must
be with you. I will do anything to foil her except lie."
"What if she should make you see it your duty to give me up?"
"What if there were no difference between right and wrong! We're as good
as married!"
"Yes, of course; but I cannot quite promise, you know, until I hear what
my uncle will say."
"If your uncle is half so good a man as you have made me think him, he
will do what he can on our side. He loves what is fair; and what can be
fairer than that those who love each other should marry?"
I knew my uncle would not willingly interfere with my happiness, and for
myself, I should never marry another than John Day--that was a thing of
course: had he not kissed me? But the best of lovers had been parted, and
that which had been might be again, though I could not see how! It _was_
good, nevertheless, to hear John talk! It was the right way for a lover
to talk! Still, he had no supremacy over what was to be!
"Some would say it cannot be so great a matter to us, when we have known
each other such a little while!" I remarked.
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