But the idea of a marriage founded on the passion which had brought them together revolted him now, and he let Bessie's arm fall to his side.
When they got back to the old maid's cottage he had still said nothing of what he had come to say. "Later on," he was telling himself, but a secret voice inside was whispering, "Never! It is impossible!"
The elder of the Miss Browns followed him to the gate to ask if he did not see a great improvement in her charge, and when he said that Bessie seemed to be a little subdued, she cried:
"Bessie? Oh dear no, not generally! Ask Mr. Gell."
Perhaps the girl was not well to-day—they had thought she had not been very well lately.
"And how is she getting on with...." (the word stuck in his throat) "with her lessons?"
"Wonderfully! Of course she has long arrears to make up, but the way she works to fit herself for her new station .... well, it's enough to make a person cry, really."
Stowell felt as if something were taking him by the throat.
"In fact my sister and I used to wonder and wonder what she did with her bedroom candles until we found out she was sitting up after everybody had gone to sleep to learn her grammar and spelling."
Stowell felt as if something had struck him in the face. Every hard thought about Bessie seemed to be wiped out of his mind in a moment.