She refused him, as gently as she could, but with firmness which left him no room for misunderstanding her. Daniel was awed by her quiet sincerity.
‘But I can wait,’ he stammered; ‘if you’d take time to think it over?’
Useless; the answer could at no time be other.
‘Well, I’ve no call to grumble,’ he said. ‘You say straight out what you mean. No woman can do fairer than that.’
His thought recurred for a moment to Alice, whose fault had been that she was ever ambiguous.
‘It’s hard to bear. I don’t think I shall ever care to marry any other woman. But you’re doin’ the right thing and the honest thing; I wish all women was like you.’
At the door he turned.
‘There’d be no harm if I take Mrs. Clay and the children, would there?’
‘I am sure they will thank you, Mr. Dabbs.’
It did not matter now that there was a clear understanding.