THE STEADFAST HEART
“Yes,” she said abstractedly, “I remember.” To herself she was saying, “I won’t go to him…. I mustn’t go to him.”
“I’ll be through college in a year,” Malcolm was saying, “and I want you then—right at the beginning of my real life. I want you as soon as I can have you.”
Lydia watched Angus walk across the yard with Myrtle. “I’ll go to him…. I’ll go…. If something doesn’t stop me, I’ll go,” she said to herself.
Again she called her attention back to Malcolm, who, intent upon his pleading, had not seen how her thoughts were not upon what he was saying…. What was he saying? Yes…. Yes. He was asking her to marry him…. She did not want to marry him—she did not want to marry anybody—or to think of marriage. Then she caught her breath. Why not? Here was safety from Angus Burke. If she married Malcolm Crane she could not give herself to Angus; nothing could give her to Angus then. If she pledged her word to Malcolm she would not break it—for her pledged word she knew she would keep…. Others had not thought it wrong to marry for money, for position. Would she do wrong to save herself from a marriage she feared—to save herself from the weakness of her own love? No…. No…. Anything
271
