'You fear that he will not give consent?'
'I know that he will not, any more than will my mother.'
'Winnie, my dear. Parents have had to undergo this sort of thing before, but children can bring them to reason. The inevitable is the most convincing of arguments. You do not suppose that cattle in pastures eat only buttercups? They nip up sorrel leaves as well. But presently they lie down and chew the cud—and it all gets chewed up together and turns into sweet milk. This little opposition to dad and mam is but sorrel leaves.'
'No, Jack, it is in vain. I cannot go against both. You do not know what my mother has been to me. But that is not all. O Jack, I do indeed love you, love you with every scrap of my heart. I would do anything for you that was possible. But do you not see that there are other impossibilities than those which can be beat down by brute force? I do not want to be a lady, to have stripes painted on me': she laughed and cried at once. 'Heaven be my witness, I would go down on my knees and scrub the floor, and whiten the doorstep of our house, and be happy, and warble for joy of heart, and keep, as I worked, an eye on the look-out to see you coming home from the office to me—to my heart.'
He clasped her to him.
'But it cannot be,' she said, disengaging herself.
'Why not—I ask again?'
'I am not able to tell you. I am not, indeed. It concerns others beside me.'
'You are full of secrets,' said he, somewhat peevishly. 'Look here. I have torn down all the thorns that stood in your way, and now you are wilfully setting them up again. Winnie, it is just the old stupid story over again. You whisk thorns in my face, and will not let me draw near to you. If you really love me, tell me everything.'
She burst into tears.