Will, you know, will be
there, Margaret, to help a bit in doing for mother."
Will's being there made the only objection Margaret saw to this
plan. She disliked the idea of seeming to throw herself in his way,
and yet she did not like to say anything of this feeling to Jem, who
had all along seemed perfectly unconscious of any love-affair,
besides his own, in progress.
So Margaret gave a reluctant consent.
"If you can just step up to our house to-night, Jem, I'll put up a
few things as may be useful to Mary, and then you can say when
you'll likely be back. If you come home to-morrow night, and Will's
there, perhaps I need not step up?"
"Yes, Margaret, do! I shan't leave easy unless you go some time in
the day to see mother. I'll come to-night, though; and now
good-bye. Stay! do you think you could just coax poor Will to walk
a bit home with you, that I might speak to mother by myself?"
No! that Margaret could not do. That was expecting too great a
sacrifice of bashful feeling.
But the object was accomplished by Will's going upstairs immediately
on their return to the house, to indulge his mournful thoughts
alone.
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