‘It isn’t your fault, Marian, and—Well, then, there’s only one thing to do. Let us wait, at all events, till your father has undergone the operation. Whichever the result, you say your own position will be the same.’
‘Except, Jasper, that if father is helpless, I must find means of assuring his support.’
‘In other words, if you can’t do that as my wife, you must remain Marian Yule.’
After a silence, Marian regarded him steadily.
‘You see only the difficulties in our way,’ she said, in a colder voice. ‘They are many, I know. Do you think them insurmountable?’
‘Upon my word, they almost seem so,’ Jasper exclaimed, distractedly.
‘They were not so great when we spoke of marriage a few years hence.’
‘A few years!’ he echoed, in a cheerless voice. ‘That is just what I have decided is impossible. Marian, you shall have the plain truth. I can trust your faith, but I can’t trust my own. I will marry you now, but—years hence—how can I tell what may happen? I don’t trust myself.’
‘You say you “will” marry me now; that sounds as if you had made up your mind to a sacrifice.’
‘I didn’t mean that. To face difficulties, yes.’