"He says he'd do anything for me," faltered the girl.
"He would not give up drinking for you! He would not keep steadily to hard work for you. He does neither now,—even for the hope of winning you; and if once you were his wife, you would be powerless. He would go his own way, and you would have to endure. Do you think I have not seen it, scores of times? Every girl thinks she can reform the man whom she wishes to marry; and it is only after marriage that she finds her mistake. I want you to know it beforehand."
"But James isn't a drinking man—commonly," urged Marigold. "Those two times he might have been overcome; but he don't commonly, ma'am. I've never seen him so. And if he had a good wife, and a nice little home—"
"You are trusting to a rope of sand. If once a man has put his foot on that steep slope, it takes far more to hold him back than wife or home. God's grace alone can do it . . . Besides, what chance is there that Todd can ever have a nice little home? Unless he were to work steadily, such a home could not exist . . . Probably he would expect you to work: and what sort of a home does that mean?
"An idle husband, and a toiling wife,—not to speak of neglected little ones. A wife and mother cannot do everything. She cannot support the household, make a comfortable home, and train her children, all at once. I am speaking very plainly, because girls do not think or look forward; and I want you to think; I want you to look forward. Marriage is no light matter. You enter upon it for life,—''till death you do part.'
"And it is not a question only as to yourself and Todd. You know as well as I do what marriage will probably mean. No man or woman has a right to marry, unless he and she have a reasonable prospect, not only of keeping themselves in comfort, but of feeding, and clothing, and rightly training, the helpless little ones, who may be given to them by God,—given to bring up for HIM! No man, whether gentleman or working man, has a right to marry unless such a prospect is his,—and no woman has a right either. Mere boys and girls rush recklessly into marriage, day after day, without a thought of the future,—yet by-and-by they will have to answer, before the Throne of God Himself, for the manner in which their children have turned out."
"I'm sure I never thought about all that," said Marigold in a subdued tone.
"Girls do not think; and a kind of false delicacy often keeps people from warning them in time. There is no step in life, about which one ought so seriously to count the cost, so anxiously to weigh one's responsibilities, as marriage,—just because it involves so much, and because it can never be undone . . . Will you give your mind to what I have said? Do not at least drift into a step which may spoil your whole life, not to speak of other lives.
"And pray to be guided. Even if James Todd's character were in other qualities all that one could desire,—I mean if he were entirely steady, thoroughly hard-working,—even then I should still ask you to think how far you, who try to serve God from the heart, could be happy with a husband who professes no religion at all. But he falls short of even such lower requirements. Think it over well, Marigold."
"I will indeed, ma'am," Marigold answered, and her eyes were full of tears.