Yet it was on
his arm that Jane Wilson leant on her return homewards. Jem took
charge of Margaret.
"Margaret, I'm bound for Liverpool by the first train to-morrow; I
must set your grandfather at liberty."
"I'm sure he likes nothing better than watching over poor Mary; he
loves her nearly as well as me. But let me go! I have been so full
of poor Alice, I've never thought of it before; I can't do so much
as many a one, but Mary will like to have a woman about her that she
knows. I'm sorry I waited to be reminded, Jem," replied Margaret,
with some little self-reproach.
But Margaret's proposition did not at all agree with her companion's
wishes. He found he had better speak out, and put his intention at
once to the right motive; the subterfuge about setting Job Legh at
liberty had done him harm instead of good.
"To tell truth, Margaret, it's I that must go, and that for my own
sake, not your grandfather's. I can rest neither by night nor day
for thinking on Mary. Whether she lives or dies, I look on her as
my wife before God, as surely and solemnly as if we were married.
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