"
Jemima felt herself yielding to the voice and tone in which this
was spoken; but her very consciousness of the depth of her love
made her afraid of giving way, and anxious to be wooed, that she
might be reinstated in her self-esteem.
"No!" said she, "I don't think I can call you so. You are too
old. It would not be respectful." She meant it half in joke, and
had no idea he would take the allusion to his age so seriously as
he did. He rose up, and coldly, as a matter of form, in a changed
voice, wished her "Good-bye." Her heart sank; yet the old pride
was there. But as he was at the very door, some sudden impulse
made her speak--
"I have not vexed you, have I, Walter?"
He turned round, glowing with a thrill of delight. She was as red
as any rose; her looks dropped down to the ground.
They were not raised, when, half-an-hour afterwards, she said,
"You won't forbid my going to see Ruth, will you? because if you
do, I give you notice I shall disobey you." The arm around her
waist clasped her yet more fondly at the idea, suggested by this
speech, of the control which he should have a right to exercise
over her actions at some future day.
"Tell me," said he, "how much of your goodness to me, this last
happy hour, has been owing to the desire of having more freedom
as a wife than as a daughter?" She was almost glad that he should
think she needed any additional motive to her love for him before
she could have accepted him.
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