s the same. We are devoted
to the same cause: is it not so?" Mrs. Prime, who had been told that
she was to listen and not to speak, did not at first make any answer.
But she was pressed by a repetition of the question. "Is it not so,
Mrs. Prime?"

"I can never make my work equal to that of a minister of the Gospel,"
said she.

"But you can share the work of such a minister. You understand me
now. And let me assure you of this; that in making this proposition
to you, I am not self-seeking. It is not my own worldly comfort and
happiness to which I am chiefly looking."

"Ah," said Mrs. Prime, "I suppose not." Perhaps there was in her
voice the slightest touch of soreness.

"No;--not chiefly to that. I want assistance, confidential
intercourse, sympathy, a congenial mind, support when I am like to
faint, counsel when I am pressing on, aid when the toil is too heavy
for me, a kind word when the day's work is over. And you,--do you not
desire the same? Are we not alike in that, and would it not be well
that we should come together?" Mr. Prong as he spoke had put out his
hand, and rested it on the table with the palm upwards, as though
expecting that she would put hers within it; and he had tilted his
chair so as to bring his body closer to hers, and had dropped from
his face his assumed look of dignity. He was quite in earnest, and
being so had fallen away into his natural dispositions of body.

"I do not quite understand you," said Mrs. Prime. She did however
understand him perfectly, but thought it expedient that he should
be required to speak a little further before she answered him. She
wanted time also to arrange her reply. As yet she had not made up her
mind whether she would say yes or no.

"Mrs. Prime, I am offering to make you my wife. I have said nothing
of love, of that human affection which one of God's creatures
entertains for another;--not, I can assure you, because I do not feel
it, but because I think that you and I should be governed in our
conduct by a sense of duty, rather than by the poor creature-longings
of the heart."

"The heart is very deceitful," said Mrs. Prime.

"That is true,--very true; but my heart, in this matter, is not
deceitful. I entertain for you all that deep love which a man should
feel for her who is to be the wife of his bosom."

"But Mr. Prong--"

"Let me finish before you give me your answer. I have thought much
of this, as you may believe; and by only one consideration