'But,' thought the girl, 'how long am I to be from him? How long is he to be from me?' she said aloud. 'But, Mrs Osborne, shall I not be in your way?'
'In our way, child! not at all. We shall be delighted to have you. You will be a companion to Alice. Indeed, I do not know what Alice would do only for the hope of having you.'
'And who will keep me company when my George is away--when my George is away?' thought Marie.
In the afternoon of the day after Osborne left Stratford, Marie got the following letter from him:--
'My Own Darling Marie,--Here I am once more in London, but not in the old place. When you answer this, you are to address your letter to Kaiser's Hotel, E.C.
'I have thought over the whole thing most carefully. I have tried, with how much success I do not know, to look at the matter dispassionately, and I have come to a final conclusion. My mind is now made up to insist upon your marrying me within a month. I have not waited for a personal interview with you, for two reasons: I did not care, after my mother's positive refusal to release you from your promise, to use the house, or your visit to the house, as a means of urging my right; and I did not think that in an interview I could say in as forcible and simple a way as I could on paper.
'My reasons now for being so firm are very simple. You told me some time ago you would marry me, in spite of my religious beliefs or disbeliefs. After that you, imagining my faith had returned, promise my mother not to fix the day while I suffer from any form of unbelief. After that, while you are still under the belief I have come back to my old faith, you promise to marry me within a month, within three weeks. Thus you made the promise to my mother and the promise to me under the same mistake. Both these promises are cancelled, by the fact that they were made under a false impression. Therefore, neither your refusing to marry me, nor your marrying me within a month or three weeks, is obligatory according to your promises, _but_ the promise you made me in Lincoln's Inn Fields was not qualified, nor has it been cancelled in any way. It is the only promise I now look upon as existing between you and me, and I know you are too simple and honourable a nature to allow yourself in any way to cloud your mind as to the line of your duty.