At last her father left the house, and
then she might give way to her passionate tears.
It so happened that Jem, after much anxious thought, had determined
that day to "put his fortune to the touch, to win or lose all." He
was in a condition to maintain a wife in comfort. It was true his
mother and aunt must form part of the household: but such is not
an uncommon case among the poor, and if there were the advantages of
previous friendship between the parties, it was not, he thought, an
obstacle to matrimony. Both mother and aunt, he believed, would
welcome Mary. And, oh! what a certainty of happiness the idea of
that welcome implied.
He had been absent and abstracted all day long with the thought of
the coming event of the evening. He almost smiled at himself for
his care in washing and dressing in preparation for his visit to
Mary; as if one waistcoat or another could decide his fate in so
passionately a momentous thing. He believed he only delayed before
his little looking-glass for cowardice, for absolute fear of a girl.
He would try not to think so much about the affair, and he thought
the more.
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