‘But they may be right, Marian, and they have a claim upon you too. I hope to do well next trip. I believe I shall do well enough,’ said he, smiling and smoothing the back of my hand, ‘to enable me to put something to your own fortune. I wish to be independent of you. You are not a woman to respect a man that is dependent upon you.’ ‘My aunt was right,’ said I. ‘We don’t understand each other yet. Certainly you don’t understand me.’ He kissed me and said he knew what was in my mind, but all the same when he was my husband he wished to be independent of my fortune. ‘You shall have it all,’ I exclaimed, ‘and that will make you independent of me.’ ‘Marian,’ said he gravely, ‘now that you have consented to be my wife I’ll tell you what I schemed; there would seem something unnatural in my going to sea and leaving my young bride behind me. I want you to be at my side when you are my wife. I do not know that I shall follow the sea much longer! A great deal will depend upon the issue of my next voyage. If I leave you behind, betrothed to me, you will have plenty of time to consider whether you, as a beauty and a fortune, have done wisely in accepting the hand of a plain merchant captain.’ ‘Don’t talk nonsense, Tom,’ said I, giving his name bluntly, and not at all relishing his sentimental fastidiousness, which I attributed to the influence of my uncle. ‘My dear girl, when we are married, we mean to live together happily, don’t we?’ ‘That will depend upon you.’ ‘It will depend upon us both, Marian. When a sailor carries a ship into unnavigated waters, if he is a good sailor, and does not mean to cast his ship away, he heaves the lead as he goes, warily sounds along every fathom of his road until he brings up in a safe anchorage. This is what you must do, and it’s for me to give you time to heave the lead, dear.’ ‘You want time to heave it yourself, Tom.’ ‘My darling,’ he cried, catching me to him, ‘I would marry you to-morrow.’ Presently, when we had composed ourselves, he said that he was going down to Sunderland next week, and would be away for about a week; and then he talked to me about purchasing a share in the new vessel, and seemed to want my advice. He named several instances of merchants who, having speculated in this way in shipping, had risen out of small beginnings into great opulence. He told me that he would be better off than most investors, inasmuch as he would have command of his own venture, so to speak, be able to control things and push his business to the limits of all successful directions. In this sort of conversation the afternoon passed away. At last, at about five o’clock, we were interrupted by a party of captains and others coming in to dine, on which Tom paid the bill and we left. He accompanied me to my house, and bade me farewell at the door, after arranging to call for me at eleven o’clock next morning. CHAPTER VII SHE PARTS WITH HER SWEETHEART