“Mr. Darrell, you surprise me. I thank you for the compliment you pay me with your honorable offer, but I have no wish to get married.”
“Do you reject me, Miss Mary? Tell me one thing; tell me truly, do you care for any one else?”
“No, I care for nobody. I don't want to marry.”
“But you will marry some time. If you knew how very miserable you make me, I think you would not have the heart to refuse me.”
“You will get over it. I am going soon. Forget me.”
Darrell made no answer. He staggered out of the room and did not return until the following week, when Mary had left for Washington, accompanied by Letitia, her colored servant (called Tisha), who was devotedly attached to her.
Darrell had become rather taciturn and less sociable than ever, Mrs. Newton noticed, and since Mary left he seemed to lose flesh and all his spirits, and passed the winter as if life were a burden to him. But when spring came, he brightened up a little, though he felt far from happy. About that time Mrs. Newton had a letter from Mary, saying that she was going to spend vacation in Maryland with her other aunt, and Tisha for her escort.
“She don't come here, because she fears I shall pester her life with my visits. As she knows I can't keep away from her, she keeps away from you. She hates me. I suppose you, too, will take to hating me, by and by,” said Darrell, when he heard that Mary was not coming that summer.
“No danger of that, William,” Mrs. Newton replied.
“Yes, there is. You ought to hate me for driving her away. I hate myself worse than I hate the devil.”