"What have I done to be ashamed of, pray?"
Some ladies are ready to plume themselves upon not having been
guilty of certain great crimes. Some thieves, I dare say, console
themselves that they have never committed murder.
"If I had married a man I did not love," answered Mary, "I should
be more ashamed of myself than I can tell."
"That is the way of looking at such things in the class you
belong to, I dare say," rejoined Hesper; "but with us it is quite
different. There is no necessity laid upon _you. Our_
position obliges us."
"But what if God should not see it as you do?"
"If that is all you have got to bring against me!--" said Hesper,
with a forced laugh.
"But that is not all," replied Mary. "When you married, you
promised many things, not one of which you have ever done."
"Really, Mary, this is intolerable!" cried Hesper.
"I am only doing what you asked me, ma'am," said Mary. "And I
have said nothing that every one about Mr. Redmain does not know
as well as I do."
Hesper wished heartily she had never challenged Mary's judgment.
"But," she resumed, more quietly, "how could you, how could any
one, how could God himself, hard as he is, ask me to fulfill the
part of a loving wife to a man like Mr. Redmain?--There is no use
mincing matters with _you,_ Mary."
"But you promised," persisted Mary. "It belongs, besides, to the
very idea of marriage.
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