"I never understood there was any such intention. No one ever spoke to me
of it. But if the plan had been possible, it was a wise plan; any sensible
parents would have conceived it, and hoped and worked for its
accomplishment."
"When I left home last spring--if I had thought you cared for me--one word
would have detained me."
"Was it my place to say that word? And, Allan, you would not have been
moved by any word at that time. You thought only of asserting yourself,
your rights, your inclinations. The crown of England would not have fitted
you, unless it had been your gracious will to select it."
"A man must have some individuality--"
"At twenty-four years old how much has he? He is a mass of undigested
learning and crude opinions. What he will be at thirty-four depends upon a
thousand circumstances which he cannot even apprehend. Wishes and advices
from a father are not commands. You showed a petulant, foolish temper,
quite unworthy of you, in turning your back on Uncle John, and saying in
effect, 'I don't intend to take your advice, I intend to take my own way,
even though it lead me to a Fife fishing village--and a degrading love
affair."
She said the words calmly, looking steadily, not at Allan, but into the
depths of the Argand lamp. There was no nervous movement of her hands; her
interlaced fingers lay motionless on the table before her.
Allan answered promptly, "I have no degrading love affair in any Fife
village. If I had, do you think I should have entered your presence at
all? The woman I love is as sacred in my eyes as you are. I intend to make
her my wife. I should have told you all about her the morning that you
took for granted my offer in order to peremptorily refuse me--if you had
allowed me"-"Oh, Allan! don't say that! We are getting deeper and deeper into
mistakes. I certainly thought you wanted me to refuse you. I tried to make
the necessity as easy as possible for you. But imagine how I felt when I
came to consider things! I was asked to do this humiliating piece of
deception, in order that I might clear your way to some fisher-girl. It
was too bad, Allan!"
"I do seem to have treated you badly, Mary, because you gave me no
opportunity to tell you every thing, and to ask as a great sisterly
kindness what you gave under a sense of indignation and wrong. I feel that
it is now useless to explain; but how did you know that I was in love with
a fisher-girl?"