He went to the door to open it for her, and she, as she gave him her
hand, told him that she came up to speak to him. There was no hesitation
in her manner, nor any look of anger in her face. But there was in her
gait and form, in her voice and countenance, a fixedness of purpose
which he had never seen before, or at any rate had never acknowledged.
'Certainly,' said he. 'Shall I come out with you, or will you come
upstairs?'
'We can sit down in the summer-house,' she said; and thither they both
went.
'Captain Broughton,' she said--and she began her task the moment that
they were both seated--'You and I have engaged ourselves as man and
wife, but perhaps we have been over rash.'
'How so?' said he.
'It may be--and indeed I will say more--it is the case that we have made
this engagement without knowing enough of each other's character.'
'I have not thought so.'
'The time will perhaps come when you will so think, but for the sake of
all that we most value, let it come before it is too late. What would be
our fate--how terrible would be our misery, if such a thought should
come to either of us after we have linked our lots together.
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