man, of whom am
I to think the most? Could it be possible that I should be to him
what a wife ought to be to her husband? Could I stand nobly on his
hearth-rug, and make his great guests welcome? Should I be such a
one that every day he should bless the kind fortune which had given
him such a woman to help him to rule his house? How could I go from
the littleness of these chambers to walk through his halls without
showing that I knew myself to be an intruder? And yet I should be
so proud that I should resent the looks of all who told me by their
faces that I was so. He has done wrong in allowing himself to love
me. He has done wrong in yielding to his passion, and telling me of
his love. I will be wiser and nobler than he. If the Lord will help
me, if my Saviour will be on my side, I will not do wrong. I did not
think that you, Mrs. Roden, would turn against me."

"Turn against thee, Marion? I to turn against thee!"

"You should strengthen me."

"It seems to me that you want no strength from others. It is for your
poor father that I would say a word."

"I would not have father believe that my health has aught to do with
it. You know,--you know what right I have to think that I am fit to
marry and to hope to be the mother of children. It needs not that
he should know. Let it suffice for him to be told that I am not
equal to this greatness. A word escaped me in speaking to him, and
I repent myself that I so spoke to him. But tell him,--and tell him
truly,--that were my days fixed here for the next fifty years, were
I sure of the rudest health, I would not carry my birth, my manners,
my habits into that young lord's house. How long would it be, Mrs.
Roden, before he saw some little trick that would displease him? Some
word would be wrongly spoken, some garment would be ill-folded, some
awkward movement would tell the tale,--and then he would feel that he
had done wrong to marry the Quaker's daughter. All the virtues under
the sun cannot bolster up love so as to stand the battery of one
touch of disgust. Tell my father that, and tell him that I have done
well. Then you can tell him also, that, if God shall so choose it, I
shall live a strong old maid for many years, to think night and day
of his goodness to me,--of his great love."

Mrs. Roden, as she had come across from her own house, had known that
her mission would fail. To persuade another against one's own belief
is difficult in any case, but to persuade Marion