.
She wished to be urged by Mary to do that which Will urged her to
do;--or, at least, to learn whether Mary thought that her brother's
wish might be gratified without impropriety. "Don't you think we
ought to live here?" she said.

"By all means,--if you both like it."

"He is so good,--so unselfish, that he will only ask me to do what
I like best."

"And which would you like best?"

"I think he ought to live here because it is the old family property.
I confess that the name goes for something with me. He says that he
would build a new house."

"Does he think he could have it ready by the time you are married?"

"Ah;--that is just the difficulty. Perhaps, after all, you had
better read his letter. I don't know why I should not show it to
you. It will only tell you what you know already,--that he is the
most generous fellow in all the world." Then Mary read the letter.
"What am I to say to him?" Clara asked. "It seems so hard to refuse
anything to one who is so true, and good, and generous."

"It is hard."

"But you see my poor, dear father's death has been so recent."

"I hardly know," said Mary, "how the world feels about such things."

"I think we ought to wait at least twelve months," said Clara, very
sadly.

"Poor Will! He will be broken-hearted a dozen times before that. But
then, when his happiness does come, he will be all the happier."
Clara, when she heard this, almost hated her cousin Mary,--not for
her own sake, but on Will's account. Will trusted so implicitly to
his sister, and yet she could not make a better fight for him than
this! It almost seemed that Mary was indifferent to her brother's
happiness. Had Will been her brother, Clara thought, and had any girl
asked her advice under similar circumstances, she was sure that she
would have answered in a different way. She would have told such girl
that her first duty was owing to the man who was to be her husband,
and would not have said a word to her about the feeling of the world.
After all, what did the feeling of the world signify to them, who
were going to be all the world to each other?

On that afternoon she went up to Mrs. Askerton's; and succeeded in
getting advice from her also, though she did not show Will's letter
to that lady. "Of course, I know what he says," said Mrs. Askerton.
"Unless I have mistaken the man, he wants to be married to-morrow."

"He is not so bad as that," said Clara.

"Then the next day, or the day after.