'Oh,' sir! if you please do not speak so to a poor servant girl like me. I would rather not hear it.'
'You will not see, or hear, or believe what I do, and say and think all day long; so now, here, where nobody else can listen, you must hear me. You must learn to be happy with us, you must love us, you must—'
'Oh! I do, sir, I do. Let me go, sir, if you please.'
'Not until you hear that you must love me, even me whom you cannot bear.'
'Oh! I do, sir—I do. I thank you, I pray for you, I love you all, always; indeed, indeed, I do.'
'But better than all the others, as I love you, so as to be my wife when—when—'
'Let me go, Mr Owen, if you please. You must not talk to me so, sir; me, just now a beggar at your gate.'
'But I must, I will, and you must listen. In spite of myself, and of your cold manners and pale face, and all the trouble you take to avoid me, I love you, Gladys, and will marry you if you will have me. I will give up the sea, and become a steady fellow, and live at home, and make you and my parents happy, and—'
'Oh! Mr Owen, if your parents were to hear you talking like this to me, what would they say to you? what would they think of me? You should not make a joke of my poverty and friendless state, sir. Anything else, but not this! oh! not this! and from you.'
'I was never more in earnest in all my life, and ask for only one word of encouragement from you to go and tell my and mother directly,'