If, on the other hand, he would go back to his old life and work with all his will, as it was only right and just he should do, and if at the end of two years he was just as much in love with her as ever, and if there was nothing against her but her lowly position, then she, Meg, would withdraw her opposition, and even do all she could to help him forward. She felt safe.
“Think how much better you will know each other by then,” she said cheerfully, as they walked back to the house, both feeling they had been near a volcano’s edge. “Why, how long have you known her, Pip?”
And his answer was the least bit shamefaced.
[111]
]“Three months—nearly four, at least.”
He had the unpleasant feeling of having been conquered; but deep in his secret heart there was relief; that it had been taken out of his hands. He had known he was making shipwreck of his life, known he was bringing bitter trouble upon his family by this hot haste; but Mabel (with two l’s and an e) had been so insistent about an immediate marriage, and he so deeply in love and fearful of losing her, that he had felt the world was well lost.
And what Meg said was very true. It would be more manly of him to work first, and take a wife when he had something to keep her on.
His Spanish castles raised themselves rapidly against the early evening sky. He would work for two or three years as never man worked yet, and marry “Mabelle” at the end of that time; then he would take her to England that she might grow a little more educated and polished (oh, Pip, Pip!), and then bring her back and present her proudly to Esther and his father and sisters.
His face looked quite young and bright again by the time they reached the front door.
“You’re a well-meaning little thing, Meg,” he said, and kissed her patronisingly; it was not in nature that he should feel quite proper gratitude.
Meg drew a series of long breaths of relief as [112] ]she took off her hat upstairs and smoothed her hair for tea.