What
do you think now?"
"I can't see that it will make any difference. She
is not a woman to live alone. I have always been
surprised that she waited so long. You are wrong,
Jane, about this. It is best for everybody and everything
that Lucy should be married."
"John, dear," she said in a half-pleading tone--
there were some times when this last word slipped
out--"I don't want this marriage at all. I am so
wretched about it that I feel like taking the first
steamer and bringing her home with me. She will
forget all about him when she is here; and it is only
her loneliness that makes her want to marry. I don't
want her married; I want her to love me and Martha
and--Archie--and she will if she sees him."
"Is that better than loving a man who loves her?"
The words dropped from his lips before he could
recall them--forced out, as it were, by the pressure
of his heart.
Jane caught her breath and the color rose in her
cheeks. She knew he did not mean her, and yet
she saw he spoke from his heart. Doctor John's
face, however, gave no sign of his thoughts.
"But, John, I don't know that she does love
him. She doesn't say so--she says HE loves her.
And if she did, we cannot all follow our own hearts.
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