I am coming out of the woods as they are going in,
unless the sacrifice be mutual."
"Let us not be personal," Vesta pleaded, with her grace of sorrow; "I
feel that you are a kind man, at least to me, but a poor girl must make
a struggle for herself."
She saw the tears stand instantly in his eyes, and pressed her
advantage:
"Your tears are like the springs we find here, so close under the flinty
sand that nobody would suspect them, but I have seen them trickle out.
Tell me, now, if I would not be happier to take up the burden of my
father and mother, and let us diminish and be frugal, instead of
cowardly flying into the protection of our creditor, by a union which
the world, at least, would pronounce mercenary. My father might come up
again, in some way."
"No, Miss Vesta. Your father can hold no property while any portion of
his debts remains unpaid. The easier way is to show the world that our
union is not mercenary, by trying to love each other. Throughout the
earth marriage is the reparation of ruined families--the short path, and
the most natural one, too. Ruth was poor kin, but she turned from the
harvest stubble that made her beautiful feet bleed, to crawl to the feet
of old Boaz and find wifely rest, and her wisdom of choice we sing in
the psalms of King David, and hear in the proverbs of King Solomon, sons
of her sons."
"I am not thinking of myself, God knows!" said Vesta.
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