me, but, the fact is, it looks as if my business was going to bits. I may
be able to pull it together again. I may not--"

"Is _that_ all? I'm glad you've told me. If you'd told me before it would
have saved a lot of bother."

"What sort of bother?"

"Well, you see, I wasn't quite sure whether I really wanted to marry
you--just yet. Sometimes I thought I did, sometimes I thought I didn't.
And now I know I do."

"That's it. I may not be in a position to marry you. I can't ask you to
share my poverty."

"I shan't mind that. I'm used to it."

"I may not be able to keep a wife at all."

"Of course you will. You're keeping a housekeeper now. And a cook and a
housemaid."

"I may have to send two of them away."

"Send them all away. I'll work for you all my life. I shall never want to
do anything else. It's what I always wanted. When I was a child I used to
imagine myself doing it for you. It was a sort of game I played."

"It's a sort of game you're playing now, my poor Mary.... No. No. It
won't do."