“Ye-es,” he said, dubiously; “but where two people have been waiting such a precious long time before they found out what love really is, it seems rather hard to be told that duty must stand first.”
“It is hard, but it is fact,” she said.
“I don’t know so much about that,” said the little doctor. “Just now I feel as if it was my bounden duty to make you my happy little wife.”
“And how can I think it my duty to accept you?” she said, smiling.
“Well, I do ask a great deal,” he replied. “It means going to the other side of the world; but, my dear Mary, you should never repent it.”
“I know I never should,” she replied. “We have only lately seen one another face to face, but I have known you and your kindness these many years.”
“Then why refuse me?”
“For one thing, I am too old,” she said, sadly.
“Your dear little heart is too young, and good, and tender, you mean.”
She shook her head.