I've been away. Will you marry me, Jane?'

I just looked at him again, and he put his arm round me and gave me
a good kiss. I had to put up with it, though I never could see any
sense in that sort of stuff. Then we walked home together, very
slow, his arm round me.

I daresay some people will think I oughtn't to have acted so, taking
away another girl's fellow. But I was quite sure she would get
plenty that would play love in a cottage with her, and she did not
seem to appreciate her blessings in getting a man that was well off,
and I didn't see how it could be found out, as he was going away
next day.

Now, it would all have gone as well as well if I had had the sense
to offer to see him off at the station, and I ought to have had the
sense to see him well out of the place. But we all make mistakes
sometimes. Mine was in saying 'Good-bye' to him at the corner of the
four-acre and going home by myself, leaving him with three-quarters
of an hour for 'Satan to find some mischief still for idle hands to
do' in.

I said 'Good-bye' to him, and he kissed me, and gave me the address
where to write, and told me what to do.

'For I shan't have no truck with your uncle,' says he. 'I marries my
wife, and I takes her right away.'

It wasn't till I was going up the stairs, untying my bonnet-strings
as I went, and smoothing out the ribbons with my finger and thumb,