Gerry was waiting outside with his favorite oars, which he
kept carefully in a corner of the office.
"Dear Aunt Nancy," said the girl, with evident effort, "I am so sorry
to disappoint you. I wish for your sake that I had been another sort
of woman; but I shall never marry. I know you think I am wrong, but
there is something which always tells me I am right, and I must follow
another way. I should only wreck my life, and other people's. Most
girls have an instinct towards marrying, but mine is all against it,
and God knew best when He made me care more for another fashion of
life. Don't make me seem unkind! I dare say that I can put it all into
words better by and by, but I can never be more certain of it in my
own heart than now."
"Sit down a minute," said Miss Prince, slowly. "George can wait. But,
Anna, I believe that you are in love with him, and that you are doing
wrong to the poor lad, and to yourself, and to me. I lost the best
happiness of my life for a whim, and you wish to throw away yours for
a theory. I hope you will be guided by me. I have come to love you
very much, and it seems as if this would be so reasonable."
"It does make a difference to me that he loves me," confessed the
girl. "It is not easy to turn away from him," she said,--still
standing, and looking taller than ever, and even thin, with a curious
tenseness of her whole being. "It is something that I have found it
hard to fight against, but it is not my whole self longing for his
love and his companionship.
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