Is there any other object in creation, I wonder, which
answers its end as badly as a woman does?"
He stopped before her once more. Her breathing was easier; the dark
flush on her face was dying out again.
"Ready?" he repeated. "Yes; ready at last. Listen to me; and let's get
it over. I don't ask you to give Frank up. I ask you to wait."
"I will wait," she said. "Patiently, willingly."
"Will you make Frank wait?"
"Yes."
"Will you send him to China?"
Her head drooped upon her bosom, and she clasped her hands again, in
silence. Mr. Clare saw where the difficulty lay, and marched straight up
to it on the spot.
"I don't pretend to enter into your feelings for Frank, or Frank's for
you," he said. "The subject doesn't interest me. But I _do_ pretend to
state two plain truths. It is one plain truth that you can't be married
till you have money enough to pay for the roof that shelters you, the
clothes that cover you, and the victuals you eat. It is another plain
truth that you can't find the money; that I can't find the money; and
that Frank's only chance of finding it, is going to China. If I tell him
to go, he'll sit in a corner and cry.
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