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Updated: May 26, 2025
'I think at least that I might have a companion, she said at last. 'Of course you can have a companion if you like, Mildred; but I thought you were going to marry Alfred Stanby? 'You objected to him; you said he had nothing that he couldn't afford to marry. 'Yes, until he got his appointment; but I hear now that he's nearly certain of it. 'I don't think I could marry Alfred.
The girls she knew thought so, but the girls Mrs. Fargus knew didn't think so. And rolling over in her hot bed she lamented that there was no escape for a girl from marriage. If so, why not Alfred Stanby he as well as another? But no, she could not settle down to keep house for Alfred for the rest of her life.
Even now, when she ought to be absorbed in grief for her brother's death she was thinking of herself, of how she should live, for live she must; she did not know why, she did not know how. She had tried everything and failed, and marriage stared her in the face as the only solution of the difficulty of her life. She had promised Alfred Stanby to marry him that afternoon.
If she did not accept marriage, what should she do? She was tired asking herself that question; so she put it aside, and applied herself day by day with greater diligence to the conquest of Alfred. Their first letters were quite formal. But one day Alfred was surprised by a letter beginning My dear Mr. Stanby.
Mildred looked up wistfully; then she said: 'Ethel and Mary, do you play Mr. Bates and Miss Shield. I will play in the next set; I am a little tired. The girls looked round knowingly, and Mildred and Alfred Stanby walked towards the conservatories. Mildred sat in the long drawing-room writing.
She had begun her second water-colour, and was so intent upon it as not to be aware that a new presence had come into the garden. Alfred Stanby was walking towards her. He was a tall, elegantly dressed, good-looking young man. 'What! painting? I thought you had given it up. Let me see. 'Oh, Alfred, how you startled me!
'Alfred Stanby called here to-day. 'I wonder he did not call before. There was a note of surprise in his voice which did not quite correspond with his words. 'Did he stay long? 'He stayed for tea. 'Did you find him changed? It must be five years since you met. 'He has grown stouter. 'What did he talk about? 'Ordinary things. He was very formal.
And you, are you as much set against marriage as ever? Alfred Stanby has never married, I don't think he ever will. I think you broke his heart. 'I don't believe in breaking men's hearts. 'You are just the kind of woman who does break men's hearts. 'Why do you say that? You think me heartless. 'No, Mildred, I don't think you heartless only you're not like other girls. No, I'm not.
She reproached herself for having engaged herself to Alfred Stanby, and remembered that Harold had been opposed to the match, and had refused to give his consent until Alfred was in a position to settle five hundred a year upon her. ... Alfred would expect her to keep house for him exactly as she was now keeping house for her brother.
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