'Are you talking madness, Mary? I should live for the moment to
compensate for all.'

'You would waste your best years, and when the time came, you would
still be young, and I grown into an old careworn woman. You would
find you had waited for what was nothing worth!'

'How can you talk so!' cried Louis, wounded, 'when you know that to
cherish and make up to you would be my dearest, fondest wish! No,
don't shake your head! You know it is not a young rose and lily
beauty that I love,--it is the honest, earnest glance in my Mary's
eyes, the rest, and trust, and peace, whenever I do but come near
her. Time can't take that away!'

'Pray,' said Mary, feebly, 'don't let us discuss it now. I know it
is right. I was determined to say it to-day, that the worst might be
over, but I can't argue, nor bear your kindness now. Please let it
wait.'

'Yes, let it wait. It is depression. You will see it in a true
light when you have recovered the shock, and don't fancy all must be
given up together. Lie down and rest; I am sure you have been awake
all night.'

'I may rest now I have told you, and seen you not angry with poor
papa, nor with me. Oh! Louis--the gratitude to you, the weight off
my mind!'

'I don't think any one could help taking the same view,' said Louis.
'It seems to me one of the cases where the immediate duty is the more