She was very pale when she went in that morning, and her mother noticed it, and questioned her.
"Mr. Borthwick asked me to marry him, mother," she answered straight to the point, as was her wont. "He surprised me."
"I am not surprised, dear," her mother rejoined, smiling.
"Did you suppose he would, mother?'
"Yes. I was sure of it."
"Oh, I wish you had warned me!"
"Then you haven't accepted him, Evadne?"
"No. I have always understood that it is not right for a priest to marry, and the idea of marrying one repels me. He has lowered himself in my estimation by thinking of such a thing. I could not think of him as I do of other men. I cannot dissociate him from his office. I expect him somehow to be always about his reading-desk and pulpit."
Mrs. Frayling's face had fallen, but she only said: "I wish you could have felt otherwise, dear."
Evadne went up to her room, and stood leaning against the frame of the open window, looking out over the level landscape. The poor priest had shown deep feeling, and it was the first she had seen of such suffering. It pained her terribly.