"It isn't his fault. He wants to marry me. He wanted to all the time.
He never meant that it should be like this. He asked me to marry him.
Before it happened. Over and over again he asked me and I wouldn't
have him."
"Why wouldn't you?"
"I've told you. Because I'm afraid."
"Why are you afraid?"
"I don't know. I'm not really afraid of him. I think I'm afraid of what he might do to me if I married him."
"Do to you?"
"Yes. He might beat me. They always do, you know, those sort of men, when you marry them. I couldn't bear to be beaten."
"Oh——" Gwenda drew in her breath.
"He wouldn't do it, Gwenda, if he knew what he was about. But he might
if he didn't. You see, they say he drinks. That's what frightens me.
That's why I daren't tell Papa. Papa wouldn't care if he did beat me.
He'd say it was my punishment."
"If you feel like that about it you mustn't marry him."