the house of Aros.

I was eager to be alone with Mary; yet it was not till after supper, and

then but for a short while, that I could have a word with her. I lost no

time beating about the bush, but spoke out plainly what was on my mind.

'Mary,' I said, 'I have not come to Aros without a hope. If that should

prove well founded, we may all leave and go somewhere else, secure of

daily bread and comfort; secure, perhaps, of something far beyond that,

which it would seem extravagant in me to promise. But there's a hope

that lies nearer to my heart than money.' And at that I paused. 'You

can guess fine what that is, Mary,' I said. She looked away from me in

silence, and that was small encouragement, but I was not to be put off.

'All my days I have thought the world of you,' I continued; 'the time

goes on and I think always the more of you; I could not think to be happy

or hearty in my life without you: you are the apple of my eye.' Still

she looked away, and said never a word; but I thought I saw that her

hands shook. 'Mary,' I cried in fear, 'do ye no like me?'

'O, Charlie man,' she said, 'is this a time to speak of it? Let me be, a

while; let me be the way I am; it'll not be you that loses by the

waiting!'

I made out by her voice that she was nearly weeping, and this put me out

of any thought but to compose her. 'Mary Ellen,' I said, 'say no more; I

did not come to trouble you: your way shall be mine, and your time too;

and you have told me all I wanted. Only just this one thing more: what

ails you?'

She owned it was her father, but would enter into no particulars, only

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