u make him the promise?" John Gordon fancied that
since he had been at Croker's Hall words had been spoken, or that
he had seen signs, indicating that the engagement had not been of
a long date. And in every word that she had uttered to him he had
heard whispered under her breath an assurance of her perfect love for
himself. He had been sure of her love when he had left the house at
Norwich, in which he had been told that he had been lingering there
to no good purpose; but he had never been more certain than he was at
this moment, when she coldly bade him go and depart back again to his
distant home in the diamond-fields. And now, in her mock anger and in
her indignant words, with the purpose of her mind written so clearly
on her brow, she was to him more lovable and more beautiful than
ever. Could it be fair to him as a man that he should lose the prize
which was to him of such inestimable value, merely for a word of cold
assent given to this old man, and given, as he thought, quite lately?
His devotion to her was certainly assured. Nothing could be more
fixed, less capable of a doubt, than his love. And he, too, was
somewhat proud of himself in that he had endeavoured to entangle
her by no promise till he had secured for himself and for her the
means of maintaining her. He had gone out and he had come back
with silent hopes, with hopes which he had felt must be subject
to disappointment, because he knew himself to be a reticent,
self-restrained man; and because he had been aware that "the world,"
as she had said, "is full of hard things which have to be borne."

But now if, as he believed, the engagement was but of recent date,
there would be a hardship in it, which even he could not bear
patiently,--a hardship, the endurance of which must be intolerable
to her. If it were so, the man could hardly be so close-fisted, so
hard-hearted, so cruel-minded, as to hold the girl to her purpose!
"When did you promise to be his wife?" he said, repeating his
question. Now there came over Mary's face a look of weakness, the
opposite to the strength which she had displayed when she had bade
him not ask her for a word of kindness. To her the promise was the
same, was as strong, even though it had been made but that morning,
as though weeks and months had intervened. But she felt that to him
there would be an apparent weakness in the promise of her engagement,
if she told him that it was made only on that morning. "When was it,
Mary