irection as Mrs Baggett's? "She says that you are only laying
up trouble for yourself in this, and I think that it is true."

Then he rose up in his wrath and spoke his mind freely, and showed
her at once that John Gordon had not dwelt much on his mind. He had
bade her not to speak of him, and then he had been contented to look
upon him as one whom he would not be compelled to trouble himself
with any further. "I think, Mary, that you are making too little of
me, and of yourself, to talk to me, or even to consider, in such
a matter, what a servant says to you. As you have given me your
affection, you should now allow nothing that any one can say to you
to make you even think of changing your purpose." How grossly must
he be mistaken, when he could imagine that she had given him her
heart! Had she not expressly told him that her love had been set upon
another person? "To me you are everything. I have been thinking as I
walked up and down the path there, of all that I could do to make you
happy. And I was so happy myself in feeling that I had your happiness
to look after. How should I not let the wind blow too coldly on you?
How should I be watchful to see that nothing should ruffle your
spirits? What duties, what pleasures, what society should I provide
for you? How should I change my habits, so as to make my advanced
years fit for your younger life? And I was teaching myself to hope
that I was not yet too old to make this altogether impossible. Then
you come to me, and tell me that you must destroy all my dreams,
dash all my hopes to the ground,--because an old woman has shown her
temper and her jealousy!"

This was true,--according to the light in which he saw her position.
Had there been nothing between them two but a mutual desire to be
married, the reason given by her for changing it all would be absurd.
As he had continued to speak, slowly adding on one argument to
another, with a certain amount of true eloquence, she felt that
unless she could go back to John Gordon she must yield. But it was
very hard for her to go back to John Gordon. In the first place, she
must acknowledge, in doing so, that she had only put forward Mrs
Baggett as a false plea. And then she must insist on her love for
a man who had never spoken to her of love! It was so hard that she
could not do it openly. "I had thought so little of the value I could
be to you."

"Your value to me is infinite. I think, Mary, that there has come
upon you