Any time within a month."
"Isn't it better to wait?" said Catherine.
"To wait for what?"
She hardly knew for what; but this tremendous leap alarmed her.
"Till we have thought about it a little more."
He shook his head, sadly and reproachfully. "I thought you had been
thinking about it these three weeks. Do you want to turn it over in
your mind for five years? You have given me more than time enough.
My poor girl," he added in a moment, "you are not sincere!"
Catherine coloured from brow to chin, and her eyes filled with tears.
"Oh, how can you say that?" she murmured.
"Why, you must take me or leave me," said Morris, very reasonably.
"You can't please your father and me both; you must choose between
us."
"I have chosen you!" she said passionately.
"Then marry me next week."
She stood gazing at him. "Isn't there any other way?"
"None that I know of for arriving at the same result. If there is, I
should be happy to hear of it."
Catherine could think of nothing of the kind, and Morris's luminosity
seemed almost pitiless. The only thing she could think of was that
her father might, after all, come round, and she articulated, with an
awkward sense of her helplessness in doing so, a wish that this
miracle might happen.
"Do you think it is in the least degree likely?" Morris asked.
"It would be, if he could only know you!"
"He can know me if he will.
Pages:
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155