‘You say,’ she replied, with bent head, ‘that it would bring us fifty pounds a year. If another fifty were added to that, my father and mother would be supported in case the worst comes. I might earn fifty pounds.’
‘You wish me to understand, Marian, that I mustn’t expect that you will bring me anything when we are married.’
His tone was that of acquiescence; not by any means of displeasure. He spoke as if desirous of saying for her something she found a difficulty in saying for herself.
‘Jasper, it is so hard for me! So hard for me! How could I help remembering what you told me when I promised to be your wife?’
‘I spoke the truth rather brutally,’ he replied, in a kind voice. ‘Let all that be unsaid, forgotten. We are in quite a different position now. Be open with me, Marian; surely you can trust my common sense and good feeling. Put aside all thought of things I have said, and don’t be restrained by any fear lest you should seem to me unwomanly—you can’t be that. What is your own wish? What do you really wish to do, now that there is no uncertainty calling for postponements?’
Marian raised her eyes, and was about to speak as she regarded him; but with the first accent her look fell.
‘I wish to be your wife.’
He waited, thinking and struggling with himself.
‘Yet you feel that it would be heartless to take and use this money for our own purposes?’
‘What is to become of my parents, Jasper?’