“How deliciously fresh it is now,” she almost carolled. “The wind has gone down and the air is lovely; and look, how beautiful the sky is with those last black clouds.... Oh, I think it so ripping, that everything’s all right again between you and Papa! I did feel it so. You know how fond I am of both of you, Aunt Constance and you, and of Addie; and it was all so sad.... Tell me, does Auntie still feel bitter about it? I expect she does.... Ah, I understand quite well now ... that she would have liked to come to our house ... officially, let me say! But why not first have spoken to Mamma ... or to me, who am so fond of you? Then we could have seen: we might have thought of something. As it was, Mamma was so startled by that unexpected visit.... Poor Aunt Constance, she isn’t happy! How sad that you and she aren’t happier together! Oh, I could cry about it at times: it seems such a shame!... A man and woman married ... and then ... and then what I so often see!... I oughtn’t to have said what I did before dinner, it was stupid of me; but I may speak now, mayn’t I?... Oh, I sha’n’t marry, I won’t marry!... To be married like Otto and Frances, like Emilie and Van Raven: I think it dreadful. Or like you and Auntie: I should think it dreadful. Can’t you be happier together? Not even for Addie’s sake? I wish you could; it would make me so happy. I can’t bear it, when you and Auntie quarrel.... She was sweet and gentle to-night, but so very quiet. She is so nice.... That was a mad fit of hers, to go abroad so suddenly; but then she had had so much to vex her. Oh, those two old aunts: I could have murdered them! I can hear them now!... Poor Auntie! Do try and be a little nice to her.... Has this been going on between you for years? Don’t you love each other any longer?... No, I sha’n’t marry, I sha’n’t marry, I shall never marry.”
“Come, Marianne: if some one comes along whom you get to love....”
“No, I shall never marry.... I might expect too much of my husband. I should really want to find something beautiful, some great joy, in my love ... and to marry for the sake of marrying, like Frances or Emilie, is a thing I couldn’t, couldn’t do.... Otto is fonder of Louise than of his wife; and lately Emilie and Henri are inseparable.... In our family there has always been that affection between brother and sister. But it is too strong, far too strong. It doesn’t make them happy. I’ve never felt it in that way, fond as I am of my brothers.... No, I should place the man I love above everybody, above everybody.... But I suppose you’re laughing ... at my bread-and-butter notions....”
“No, I’m not laughing, Marianne; and, just as you would like to see Aunt Constance and me happy, so I should like to see you happy ... with a man whom you loved.”
“That will never be, Uncle; no, that will never be.”
“How can you tell?”
“Oh, I feel it, I feel it!...”
“Come, I’ll have a bet on it,” he said, laughingly.
“No, Uncle,” she said, with a pained smile, “I won’t bet on a thing like that....”
“I didn’t mean to hurt you, Marianne....”