again:

"Alice, you know how fond I am of you--in fact, I have loved you all my
life. You will marry me, won't you?"

Harry was very disappointed, and not a little surprised, that Alice did
not answer in the affirmative right away; but he had conceded with
fairly good grace when she had asked for a few days to think about it.

"It is all right," said Harry to himself as he left the house that
night, "I am sure she means yes. And she's a fine lass, the finest in
Brunford."

That was why Alice sat alone that night thinking. She had promised to
give Harry her definite reply in three days' time, and although she was
very fond of him she could not bring herself to give him the answer he
desired. When he had left the house her father and mother had come
into the room.

"Well, Alice, have you fixed it up?"

She shook her head, but didn't speak.

"Come now, lass, you needn't be so shy. I know he's asked you to wed
him; he asked for my permission like a man, and then he told me he was
going to speak to you to-night. You can't do better, my dear. Have
you fixed it all up?"

"No," she said.

"What!" cried the father, "you don't mean to say you have been such a
fool as to say no!"

"I have said nothing as yet," was her answer.

George Lister heaved a sigh of relief. "Ay, well," he said, "it's
perhaps a good thing not to say yes at once. Hold him back two or
three days and it will make him all the more eager. When a man comes
to me to buy cloth I never shows as 'ow I am eager to sell. But of
course you _will_ take him?"

"I don't know," replied Alice.

"Don't know! Why don't you know? You like him, don't you?"

"I don't know, father," she replied, and then she rushed out of the
room.

"What's the meaning of this, lass?" said George Lister to his wife.
"Has she told you anything?"

"Not a word," said Mrs. Lister.

"But surely she can't be such a fool as to refuse Harry! Why, there
isn't a better chap in Brunford! He's an only son, and his father's
brass will go to him when he dies."

But Mrs. Lister did not speak a word; in her eyes was a far-away look,
as though she saw something which her husband did not see.

As for Alice, she sat for a long time thinking in silence.

Harry's words still rang in her ears; the memory of the look on his
face as he left her still remained. Still she could not make up her
mind. Yes, she liked Harry, in a way she admired him. He was a
teacher in the Sunday