"We'll sit here where we sat that morning when we both put our hands to the plough, and you tell me what you were thinking."
"I ought not to stop now, David. I've left all for mother to do. I was that busy at the cabin I didn't get down to her this morning."
"You can't keep two homes going with only your own two dear hands, Cassandra. It must be stopped. We'll find some one to live with your mother and take your place." She gave a little gasp, then sat silently, her hands dropped passively in her lap, and he thought she seemed sad. He took her face between his hands and made her look into his eyes. "Don't be worried, sweetheart; we'll make a few changes. You're mine now, you know—not only to serve me and labor for me as you have been doing all these weeks, but—"
"But I like it, David. I like doing for you. I hope it may always be so I can do for you."
"Would you like me to become an invalid again so you could keep on in the way you began?"
"Not that—but sometimes I think what if you shouldn't really need me!" She hid her face on his breast. "I—I want you to need me—David!" It was almost like a cry for help, as she said it.
"Dear heart, dear heart! What are you thinking and fearing? Can't you understand? You are mine now, to be cared for and loved and held very near and dear to my heart. We are no more twain, we are one."
"Yes, but—but—David, I—I want you to need me," she sobbed, and he knew some thought was stirring in her heart which she could not yet put into words. He comforted her and soothed her, explaining certain plans which later he put into execution, so that her duties at the Fall Place were brought to an end and he could have her always with him.
A daughter of her Uncle Cotton, who had gone down into South Carolina to live, was induced to come and stay with the widow, and the girl's brother came with her and helped David on the farm.