“O yes, yes! And I would rather be yours than anybody’s in the world,” returned the sweet and honest voice of the distressed girl. “But I cannot marry you!”
“Tess,” he said, holding her at arm’s length, “you are engaged to marry some one else!”
“No, no!”
“Then why do you refuse me?”
“I don’t want to marry! I have not thought of doing it. I cannot! I only want to love you.”
“But why?”
Driven to subterfuge, she stammered—
“Your father is a parson, and your mother wouldn’ like you to marry such as me. She will want you to marry a lady.”
“Nonsense—I have spoken to them both. That was partly why I went home.”
“I feel I cannot—never, never!” she echoed.