“How can you degrade me by the supposition?”
“Would it degrade you more to marry her than to make her your companion? To talk with her for hours in preference to all other company? To wish to be endeared to her by still closer ties?”
“But all this is not raising her to the rank of my wife.”
“It is still raising her to that rank for which wives alone were allotted.”
“You talk wildly! I tell you I love her; but not enough, I hope, to marry her.”
“But too much, I hope, to undo her?”
“That must be her own free choice—I make use of no unwarrantable methods.”
“What are the warrantable ones?”
“I mean, I have made her no false promises; offered no pretended settlement; vowed no eternal constancy.”
“But you have told her you love her; and, from that confession, has she not reason to expect every protection which even promises could secure?”