"I do."
"Don't you think it is rather one-sided?"
"It is one-sided," Herrick admitted, "but it appears more one-sided now than it will later. I am asking you to put inordinate trust in the judgment of an old man who has done some thinking about the both of you. I have put twelve years into what you might term an experiment. Nancy is the result, and if you think the result lovable—as I do—you will give some credit to the methods which achieved it. I want just four more years, four more years; the Nancy you see now will not bear comparison with the Nancy I am offering you as a bride. Ah, if my heart had not given out I shouldn't need to be begging you; you would be begging me. Nancy needs no excuses, sir, no apologies, but I—I need four years of security, four years of peace of mind, to complete my work and to keep the love of my children. It is only in your own interests that I am asking you to make a one-sided bargain."
Nasmith was moved by Herrick's earnestness, but he was not convinced. Nasmith paused.
"Then you refuse my terms," he said, at last, after allowing the effect of Herrick's passionate appeal to grow cold, "you will not let Nancy visit my sister, nor go to school with my nieces, not even if I bind myself to marry your daughter."
"I cannot accept such terms even if you bind yourself. I have considered them, Mr. Nasmith, considered them thoroughly, long before I sent for you. They are too great a price for any betrothal. I would rather take chances with my heart."
"Is it fair to take such chances, fair to leave a young girl without protection?" Nasmith was angry in his deliberate way. "What other alternative have you, if I refuse?"
Herrick smiled. He had his trump card to play.
"I have the alternative I have entertained from the beginning—until I met you, in fact, and thought I had found a man large-minded enough, generous enough to make it unnecessary. I have the alternative of marrying Nancy to a Chinese."
"You are trying to threaten me now," said Nasmith. "You chose the wrong man. I will not be threatened into betrothing myself to your daughter."