human
I must see her. I must, I must! Go and ask her to see me for a moment. I've disgusted her --Nannie blushed;
gpt
Sometimes he burst out in rages at David:
human
What does _he_ know about love? What kind of a man is he for Elizabeth? She's a girl now, but if he gets her, God help him when she wakes up, a woman! Not that _I_ mean to try to get her. Understand that. Nothing is farther from my mind than that. She belongs to him; I play fair. I don't pretend to be a saint, but I play fair. I don't cut in, when the man's my friend. No; I just want to see her and ask her to forgive me. That's all. Nannie, for God's sake ask her if she won't see me, just for five minutes!
gpt
She came down again, very soberly.
human
Elizabeth is busy, Blair, and she says she can't see you. The next time he called he was told at the door that
gpt
Miss Elizabeth asks to be excused. Then he wrote to her:
human
All I ask is that you shall see me, so that I can implore you to pardon me.
gpt
Poor Blair, she said to herself,
human
He would be furious, she thought.
gpt
I'll tell him later--when we are married ; at the word, the warm, beautiful wave of young love rose in her heart;
human
She would tell him everything just as she would give him everything; not that she had much to give him--only herself and her little money. That blessed money, on which he and she could live for two years,--she was going to give him that! For she and Nannie and Cherry-pie had decided that if the money were _his_, by a gift, then David, who was perfectly crazy and noble about independence, would feel that he and Elizabeth were living on his money, not hers. It was an artless and very feminine distinction, but serious enough to the three women who were all so young--Elizabeth, in fact, being the oldest, and Cherry-pie, at sixty-three, the youngest. And not only had they discovered this way of overcoming David's scruples about a shorter engagement, but Elizabeth had had another inspiration: why not be married on the very day that the money came into her possession?
gpt
Oh, splendid! said Nannie; but she spoke with an effort, remembering Blair. A little timidly, Elizabeth had told her uncle of this wonderful plan about the money. He snorted with amusement at her way of whipping the devil round the stump by a
human
to David; but after a rather startled moment, although he would not commit himself to a date, he was inclined to think an earlier marriage practicable. We are selfish creatures at best, all of us: Elizabeth's way of being happy herself opened a possibility of happiness for her uncle.
gpt
Mrs. Richie can't make David an excuse for saying 'no,' if the boy gets a home of his own, he thought; and added to himself,
human
But to his niece he only barked warningly:
gpt
Well, let's hear what David has to say; _he_ has some sense.
human
Do you think there's much doubt as to what he'll say? Elizabeth said; and the dimple deepened so entrancingly that Robert Ferguson gave her a meager kiss. After securing this somewhat tentative consent, Elizabeth and Cherry-pie decided that the next thing to do was to
gpt
She said she had
human
and according to her latest estimate of how much, or rather how little, they could live on, it was possible.
gpt
You will say, we haven't even as much as this, she wrote, after she had stated what seemed to be the minimum income; then, triumphantly:
human
Then she approached the really difficult matter of making David agree to live on money that was not his. She admitted that she knew how he felt on such matters.
gpt
And you are all wrong, she declared candidly,
human
And when
gpt
Dear (she stopped to kiss the paper),
human
--when she wrote those last words, she was suddenly shy;
gpt
Uncle is to give me the money on my birthday--let us be married that day. I _want_ to be married. I am all yours, David, all my soul, and all my mind, and all my body. I have nothing that is not yours to take; so the money is yours. No, I will not even give it to you! it belongs to you already--as I do. Dear, come and take it--and me. I love you--love you--love you. _I want you to take me_. I want to be your wife. Do you understand? I _want_ to belong to you. I _am_ yours.