"It is; but why that sigh? And yet I understand it. It remonstrates with me on my incapacity for her support. I know it well, but it is wrong to be cast down. I have youth, health, and spirits, and ought not to despair of living for my own benefit and hers; but you sigh again, and it is impossible to keep my courage when you sigh. Do tell me what you mean by it."
"You partly guessed the cause. She trusts to you for happiness, but I somewhat suspect she trusts in vain."
"In vain! I beseech you, tell me why you think so."
"You say you love her: why then not make her your wife?"
"My wife! Surely her extreme youth, and my destitute condition, will account for that."
"She is fifteen; the age of delicate fervour, of inartificial love, and suitable enough for marriage. As to your condition, you may live more easily together than apart. She has no false taste or perverse desires to gratify. She has been trained in simple modes and habits. Besides, that objection can be removed another way. But are these all your objections?"
"Her youth I object to, merely in connection with her mind. She is too little improved to be my wife. She wants that solidity of mind, that maturity of intelligence which ten years more may possibly give her, but which she cannot have at this age."
"You are a very prudential youth: then you are willing to wait ten years for a wife?"
"Does that follow? Because my Bess will not be qualified for wedlock in less time, does it follow that I must wait for her?"
"I spoke on the supposition that you loved her."