"I know too well where they are," he said. "But I've wanted a good talk with you, face to face,--not with a veil of commonplace people between. You're not yourself among them. I like you best when your spirits are a little ruffled, and your eye kindles, and your lip curls, as it does now,--not when you say, "No, Sir," or "Yes, Ma'am," and smile as though it were only skin-deep." I started my horse. "Let's be going, Jessie," I said. "It's our duty to feel insulted. He accuses your mistress of being deceitful among her friends, and says he likes her when she's cross." He laughed lightly, and walked along by my side. "How are your ladies? and when will Miss Lucy come to ride out with me?" I asked, fearing a look into his eyes. This brought him down. I knew it would. He answered that she was well, and walked along with his head down, quite like another man. At length he looked up, very pale, and put his hand on my bridle. "I want to put a case to you," he said. "Suppose a man to have made some engagement before his mind was mature, and under a strong outside pressure of which he was not aware. When he grows to a better knowledge of the world and himself, and finds that he has been half cheated, and that to keep his word will entail lasting misery and ruin on himself, without really benefiting any one else, is he bound to keep it?" I stopped an instant to press my heart back, and then I answered him. "A promise is a promise, Mr. Ames. I have thought that a man of honor valued his word more than happiness or life." He flushed a moment, and then looked down again; and we walked on slowly, without a word, over the stubbly ground, and through brooklets and groves and thickets, towards home. If I could only reach there before he spoke again! How could I hold out to do my duty, if I were tempted any farther? At last he checked the horse, and, putting his hand heavily on mine, looked me full in the face, while his was pale and agitated. "Rachel," he said, huskily, "if a man came to you and said, 'I am bound to another; but my heart, my soul, my life are at your feet,' would you turn him away?" I gasped one long breath of fresh air. "Do I look like a woman who would take a man's love at second hand?" I said, haughtily. "Women like me _must_ respect the man they marry, Sir." He dropped his hand, and turned away his head, with a deep-drawn breath. I saw him stoop and lift himself again, as though some weight were laid upon his shoulders. I saw the muscles round and ridgy upon his clenched hand. "All this for a silly, shallow thing, who knows nothing of the heart she loses!" some tempter whispered, and passionate words of love rushed up and beat hard against my shut teeth. "Get thee behind me!" I muttered, and resolutely started my horse forward. "Not for her,--but for myself,--for self-respect! The best love in the world shall not buy that!"