' When such a request was made to her in such words, how
could she not accede to it? She had no alternative but to say that
she would do in this respect as he would have her. She smiled, and
nodded her head, and kissed him again. 'And, Marie darling, put on
a pretty frock,--for my sake. I like to see you gay and pretty.'
Again she nodded her head, and again she kissed him. Such requests,
so made, she felt that it would be impossible she should refuse.
And yet when she came to think of it as she went about the house
alone, the granting of such requests was in fact yielding in
everything. If she made herself smart for this young man, and sat
next him, and smiled, and talked to him, conscious as she would be--
and he would be also--that she was so placed that she might become
his wife, how afterwards could she hold her ground? And if she were
really resolute to hold her ground, would it not be much better that
she should do so by giving up no point, even though her uncle's
anger should rise hot against her? But now she had promised her
uncle, and she knew that she could not go back from her word.
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