no heart to give. I could
be a wife only in name, but I could work like a slave for protection
from a cruel, jeering world; I could hope for something like peace and
respite from suffering if I only had a safe refuge. But I must not
have these if it is not right and best. Good to me must not come
through wrong to you."

"Tush, tush! You mustn't talk so. I can't stand it at all. I've
heard your story. It's just as I supposed at first, only a great deal
more so. Why, of course it's all right. It makes me believe in
Providence, it all turns out so entirely for our mutual good. I can do
as much to help you as you to help me. Now let's get back on the
sensible, solid ground from which we started. The idea of my wanting
you to work like a slave! Like enough some people would, and then
you'd soon break down and be brought back here again. No, no; I've
explained just what I wish and just what I mean. You must get over the
notion that I'm a sentimental fool, carried away by my feelings. How
Tom Watterly would laugh at the idea! My mind is made up now just as
much as it would be a week hence. This is no place for you, and I
don't like to think of your being here. My spring work is pressing,
too. Don't you see that by doing what I ask you can set me right on my
feet and start me uphill again after a year of miserable downhill work?
You have only to agree to what I've said, and you will be at home
tonight and I'll be quietly at my work tomorrow. Mr. Watterly will go
with us to the justice, who has known me all my life. Then, if anyone
ever says a word against you, he'll have me to settle with. Come,
Alida! Here's a strong hand that's able to take care of you."

She hesitated a moment, then clasped it like one who is sinking, and
before he divined her purpose, she kissed and bedewed it with tears.

Chapter XIX.

A Business Marriage

While Holcroft's sympathies had been deeply touched by the intense
emotion of gratitude which had overpowered Alida, he had also been
disturbed and rendered somewhat anxious. He was actually troubled lest
the woman he was about to marry should speedily begin to love him, and
develop a tendency to manifest her affection in a manner that would
seem to him extravagant and certainly disagreeable. Accustomed all his
life to repress his feelings, he wondered at himself and could not
understand how he had given way so unexpectedly. He was not
sufficiently versed in human natur