Yet my heart kept crying out to him, and I felt
there was but one thing left for me to do, and that was to make it
impossible for me to think of him even, or for him to think of me. Then
you came and offered me your hand. It was a hand most women might have
been glad to accept from the standpoint of material things. And you were
Irish like myself, and like the boy I loved. I was sick of the robberies
of life and time, and I wanted to be out of it all in some secure place.
What place so secure from the sorrow that was eating at my heart as
marriage! It said no to every stir of feeling that was vexing me, to
every show of love or remembrance. So I listened to you. It was not
because you were a governor or a peer--no, not that! For even in
Virginia I had offers from one higher than yourself--and younger, and a
peer also. No, it was not material things that influenced me, but your
own intellectual eminence; for you have more brains than most men, as you
know so well."
The governor interrupted her with a gesture. "No, no, I am not so vain
as you think. If I were I should have seen at Salem that you meant to
say yes.
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