"Who says it of me, I wonder?"
"Miss Sophy Coxen does."
"And you can believe that woman! Jack, you just deserve to be turned off; that you do. If you're going to take for truth all the stories she tells, I'll have nothing more to do with you."
"Then it wasn't true? And you haven't turned against me?"
Jessie was silent.
"You do care for me—just a very little? Eh, Jessie? Say you do."
Silence still, but a small smile curled the corners of Jessie's mouth.
"I've never cared for any girl, like I do for you, and I never shall neither. I'd do my best to give you a good home—I would that—if only you'd have me. Don't you think you might now? Don't you think you could promise, Jessie?"
"Promise what?"
"Why—promise to marry me! That's the long and short of it. Won't you?"