“Oh, I don’t believe in fighting and taking their money from people. I want peace. If you could see what my life is in this storm of doubt and uncertainty, if you could sympathise with a woman in my position who has given up so much, then you’d surely understand that I’ve got no heart for all these theories and ideas at present.” “You’re getting away from the point,” he said. “I can’t argue with you because you won’t stick to the subject. I do sympathise—all the time—every minute; but my lecture doesn’t belong to our private affairs. It doesn’t alter them, or delay them. I’m going on with that as quick as Dingle will let me. But I want you to come to the lecture. I ask it, and I expect it.” “You haven’t any right to do that. I don’t ask you to come to church, so you oughtn’t to ask me to come to your lecture. We must be ourselves, and where we don’t agree, we mustn’t be afraid to say so.” “This is their work at the farm,” he declared. “Your uncle’s a benighted, ignorant man, and my ideas terrify him, and so he’s tried to influence you. And I’m sorry to find he has succeeded.” “Not at all. Uncle Tom would influence nobody; and if you think he’d influence me, that shows you don’t respect me as you ought, or give me credit for my brains—though you’ve praised them often enough.” “I give you credit for everything. You’re half my life, and the best half, I should hope. And I trust you to change your mind about this, Medora. It’s the biggest thing that’s ever happened to me, and I think if you turn it over, you’ll see you ought to be there.” “I thought I was the biggest thing that had ever happened to you. However—” “Leave it—don’t decide yet. I’m proud. I wouldn’t have you come, of course, if it’s not going to interest you. Whether you agree, or whether you don’t, I should have thought my first public appearance would mean a lot to you—me being what I am to you.” “It does mean a lot—so much that I’d be so cruel nervous that—” “But you said the reason—” “Oh dear,” she said, “if you knew how you’re making my head ache, Jordan. Leave it alone, for God’s sake. I’ll come, of course, if you’re going to make it a personal thing.” “Not if you don’t feel it a personal thing. Come back to me soon, and we’ll have a good long talk about it. There mustn’t be any difference between us. We’re too much to each other for anything like that. And don’t see Mr. Dingle again, please, Medora, till I have.” “I’m not likely to see him again.” They had walked round to the top of the “Corkscrew” by this time, and now the bell sounded below that told the dinner hour was ended. “I must be gone,” he said. “Fix your day for coming back, Medora, and Mrs. Trivett will tell me to-morrow. The sooner the better.” “I want to come as quickly as they’ll let me,” she answered. Doubt and care were in the young man’s eyes. A rare emotion touched him, and there was something yearning in his voice as he stood and held her hands.