'Fire away!' said Edgell; but he didn't look at Gwatkin, he looked at the opposite wall.
'Before you go any farther—before you ask Lucy Rae to marry you—pause and consider——'
'I've already considered,' Edgell interrupted impatiently, and with his face still averted.
'You have not considered everything. You have thought only of yourself. You have not thought of her.'
'I have thought of her!'
'No, no; you have not thought of her in the way I mean. Bear with me, dear fellow. God knows I am saying this for your sake and hers. You have not thought of her as orphaned and friendless, having no one but you in the world, being bound up in you, having all her happiness dependent upon you. A little, tender, delicate creature, with no spirit of her own, who would suffer, and break her heart, and never complain——'
'What would she have to complain of?' Edgell interrupted savagely.
'God only knows!'