'And who came?' Edward had a kind of faintness in his heart.

'Never a one.'

'Nobody at all?'

'Never a one.'

'And if anyone came and asked for you, you'd take him?'

'Well, I'm bound to, seemingly. But it dunna matter. None'll ever come.
What for should they?'

She herself answered her own question fully as she stood aureoled in
dusky light. His eyes were eloquent, but she was too busy to notice
them.

'And should you like to be married?' he asked gently.

He expected a shy affirmative. He received a flat negative.

'My mam didna like it. And she said it'd be the end of going in the
woods and all my gamesome days. And she said tears and torment, tears
and torment was the married lot. And she said, "Keep yourself to
yourself. You wunna made for marrying any more than me. Eat in company,
but sleep alone"--that's what she said, Mr. Marston.'

Edward was so startled at this unhesitating frankness that he said
nothing. But he silently buried several sweet hopes that had been
pushing up like folded hyacinths for a week. The old madness was upon