"Tell me first, what would happen if you did—that is, supposin' she said yes to you, about which I don't know anything, no more'n the people that lived in these old cellars. What would happen if you did? and if she did?"
"I would make her happy, Mrs. Marx!"
"Yes," said the lady slowly—"I guess you would; for Lois won't say yes to anybody she can live without; and I've a good opinion of your disposition; but what would happen to other people?"
"My mother and sister, you mean?"
"Them, or anybody else that's concerned."
"There is nobody else concerned," said Tom, idly defacing the rocks in his neighbourhood by tearing the lichen from them. And Mrs. Marx watched him, and patiently waited.
"There is no sense in it!" he broke out at last. "It is all folly. Mrs.
Marx, what is life good for, but to be happy?"
"Just so," assented Mrs. Marx.
"And haven't I a right to be happy in my own way?"
"If you can."