or forgetting me. This last fortnight's doubt has been terrible. It is well it is at an end, only don't think the worse of me for what I have said."
"No, certainly no," said George, who could answer that question satisfactorily.
"When I made up my mind to say these words I was prepared for the consequences, and I ran the risk. Only be honourable and tell no one. If you or any man had asked me to be your wife, and I felt that I could not give you my heart, I would never have breathed word of it to a living creature."
"I am sorry, very sorry," said George, "but I never thought of you in that way. As you say, you were my master's daughter, but as for telling, you can trust to my honour not to say a word that would give you pain, although it is what I might well be proud of."
"Proud of?" said Jessie. "But I'll get over this all the better when nobody knows about it but you and me and the God above us. I'll not break my heart, though I have been strangely mistaken. You looked so unsettled and yet so sorry to leave us that I though you fancied you would get on faster with the Hammonds and so be sooner your own master and have a right to speak for yourself. If I had not thought that you liked me in that way I'd have never said what I have said and what I never can unsay. But,
