“Betty, I love you. Will you be my wife?”
“Trust a modest man for impudence, when once he makes a start.”
“Betty, I pray you lay aside this mood, and answer me seriously. ’Tis my just due, maiden, and John Alden’s daughter should be honest.”
“Well, then, Alick, in all sadness I will answer you—no.”
“Do you mean it, Betty?”
“As I mean to be saved.”
“And will you so far humor your oldest friend as to tell him why?”
“You do not love me as the man I wed must love, nor do I love you save as a dear friend of childhood, and as such I shall ever love you. As such and no more.”
“I do not love you, say you, lass?”