“ Easy for me, yes. But for you? ”
“ Never mind me. You do whatever you like; and I ’ ll do whatever you like. You have a conscience; so I know that whatever you like will be the best thing. I have the most science; but you have the most sense. Come! ”
Lydia looked around, as if for a means of escape. Cashel waited anxiously. There was a long pause.
“ It can ’ t be, ” he said, pathetically, “ that you are afraid of me because I was a prize-fighter. ”
“ Afraid of you! No: I am afraid of myself; afraid of the future; afraid FOR you. But my mind is already made up on this subject. When I brought about this meeting between you and your mother I determined to marry you if you asked me again. ”
She stood up, quietly, and waited. The rough hardihood of the ring fell from him like a garment:
