"What is that?"
"A husband that loves the very ground you walk on."
"Oh, if I could be sure that you loved me like that."
"I do—I do; but how can I wed you without some chance of a living? The old man wouldn't take us in without the new lease, and without more land I can do nothing."
"Dick! Oh, tell me the truth now. Is that all the use you mean to make of this paper?"
"Yes, all! I will swear to it if that will pacify you. The lease, and money, down at the time; for a handsome wife must have something to dash her neighbors with. That is all I want, and that the paper in your bosom will bring me."
Judith lifted a hand to her bosom, and kept it there, still hesitating.
"You do not mean to harm the young gentleman? Oh, Richard, you could not be so bad as that."
"Harm him! No! I only want to frighten Sir Noel out of his land and money. If I once gave the paper to a magistrate, it would be an end of that."
"So it would," said Judith, thoughtfully. "Besides—besides—"