"Have you asked her?"
"Haven"t had a ghost of a chance, since I have been here!" cried the young man; "and she isn"t like other girls; she don"t give a fellow a bit of help."
Mrs. Marx laughed out.
"I mean," said Tom, "she is so quiet and steady, and she don"t talk, and she don"t let one see what she thinks. I think she must know I like her--but I have not the least idea whether she likes me."
"The shortest way would be to ask her."
"Yes, but you see I can"t get a chance. Miss Lothrop is always up-stairs in that sick-room; and if she comes down, my sister or my mother or somebody is sure to be running after her."
"Besides you," said Mrs. Marx.
"Yes, besides me."
"Perhaps they don"t want to let you have her all to yourself."
"That"s the disagreeable truth!" said Tom in a burst of vexed candour.
"Perhaps they are afraid you will do something imprudent if they do not take care."
"That"s what they call it, with their ridiculous ways of looking at things. Mrs. Marx, I wish people had sense."
"Perhaps they are right. Perhaps they _have_ sense, and it would be imprudent."
"Why? Mrs. Marx, I am sure _you_ have sense. I have plenty to live upon, and live as I like. There is no difficulty in my case about ways and means."
"What is the difficulty, then?"
"You see, I don"t want to go against my mother and sister, unless I had some encouragement to think that Miss Lothrop would listen to me; and I thought--I hoped--you would be able to help me."
"How can I help you?"
"Tell me what I shall do."
"Well, when it comes to marryin"," said Mrs. Marx, "I always say to folks, If you can live and get along without gettin" married--don"t!"
"Don"t get married?"
"Just so," said Mrs. Marx. "Don"t get married; not if you can live without."
"You to speak so!" said Tom. "I never should have thought, Mrs. Marx, you were one of that sort."
"What sort?"
"The sort that talk against marriage."
"I don"t!--only against marryin" the wrong one; and unless it"s somebody that you can"t live without, you may be sure it ain"t the right one."
"How many people in the world do you suppose are married on that principle?"
"Everybody that has any business to be married at all," responded the lady with great decision.
"Well, honestly, I don"t feel as if I could live without Miss Lothrop.
I"ve been thinking about it for months."
"I wouldn"t stay much longer in that state," said Mrs. Marx, "if I was you. When people don" know whether they"re goin" to live or die, their existence ain"t much good to "em."
"Then you think I may ask her?"
"Tell me first, what would happen if you did--that is, supposin" she said yes to you, about which I don"t know anything, no more"n the people that lived in these old cellars. What would happen if you did?
and if she did?"
"I would make her happy, Mrs. Marx!"
"Yes," said the lady slowly--"I guess you would; for Lois won"t say yes to anybody _she_ can live without; and I"ve a good opinion of your disposition; but what would happen to other people?"
"My mother and sister, you mean?"
"Them, or anybody else that"s concerned."
"There is n.o.body else concerned," said Tom, idly defacing the rocks in his neighbourhood by tearing the lichen from them. And Mrs. Marx watched him, and patiently waited.
"There is no sense in it!" he broke out at last. "It is all folly. Mrs.
Marx, what is life good for, but to be happy?"
"Just so," a.s.sented Mrs. Marx.
"And haven"t I a right to be happy in my own way?"
"If you can."
"So I think! I will ask Miss Lothrop if she will have me, this very day. I"m determined."
"But I said, _if you can_. Happiness is somethin" besides sugar and water. What else"ll go in?"
"What do you mean?" asked Tom, looking at her.
"Suppose you"re satisfied, and suppose _she"s_ satisfied. Will everybody else be?"
Tom went at the rocks again.
"It"s my affair--and hers," he said then.
"And what will your mother and sister say?"
"Julia has chosen for herself."
"I should say, she has chosen very well. Does she like your choice."