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ld do for you was to stand out of the way. But the case is altered now. You love me, and that lays a new duty on us both. The question is--how much do you love me, Rosie dear? How much are you prepared to give up for my sake? I am a poor man, and have my way to make. In ten--a dozen years from now, if I am alive and well,"--Arthur squared his shoulders and drew himself up with an air of a man who has a justifiable confidence in his own powers--"I shall have made a position for myself which will be worth your acceptance; but we must realise what ten years means. In ten years, sweetheart," he looked at her with a smile so tender that her eyes fell before his, "you will be young no longer. You will have passed the best years of your life. Could you bear to pass them as the wife of a poor man, living in a small house, without any of the luxuries and pleasures to which you are accustomed? Do you love me enough to do it _willingly_? I'd work with the strength of ten men, but I have had more experience of the world than you, dear, and I know that success cannot come in a day. With all my love and all my care, I could not shield you from the waiting which must come first." "But--but--" faltered Rosalind, and was silent. The matter-of-fact manner in which Arthur had followed up the mutual declaration of love by a proposal of marriage had filled her with consternation. She did love him, oh yes! If he had been in Lord Everscourt's position, how gladly she would have been his wife! but his picture of the life which the must share if she joined in her lot with him sent a chill of dismay through her veins. Ten years of poverty and obscurity, ten years' work and waiting, with no possibility of success until youth and beauty had fled, and she was an uninteresting, middle-aged woman! Rosalind shivered at the thought, and summoned up courage to protest once more. "It is so sudden, Arthur, that I don't know what to say. I was never sure until now that you weally did care for me. And to talk of being mawwied so soon--at once!" "What else can we do? When you tell me that other men wish to marry you, you cannot wonder that I want to claim you as my own. You are troubled about Lord Everscourt, but if you were engaged to me the matter would settle itself dear, and it would be the best way out of the difficulty. I will speak to your father at once, and--" "No, no!" she cried quickly, so quickly and with such an emphas
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