"
"It seems to me a pity they should not, then," said Mary. "I know
nothing of such matters, but, surely, young people should have
opportunities of understanding each other. Anyhow, marriage is a
heavy penalty to pay for such an indiscretion. A girl might like
a young man well enough to enjoy a talk with him now and then,
and yet find it hard to marry him."
"Did you come here to dispute social customs with me, Miss
Marston?" said Godfrey. "I am not prepared, nor, indeed,
sufficiently interested, to discuss them with you."
"I will come to the point at once," answered Mary; who, although
speaking so collectedly, was much frightened at her own boldness:
Godfrey seemed from his knowledge so far above her, and she owed
him so much.--Would it not be possible for Letty to return
here? Then the thing might take its natural course, and Tom and
she know each other better that he did not hear the remarks which
rose like the dust of his passage behind him. In the same little
sitting-room, where for so many years Mary had listened to the
slow, tender wisdom of her father, a clever young man was now
making love to an ignorant girl, whom he did not half understand
or half appreciate, all the time he feeling himself the greater
and wiser and more valuable of the two. He was unaware, however,
that he did feel so, for he had never yet become conscious of any
_fact_ concerning himself.
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