"I'm not going to bear this any longer; I'm going to Boxall Hill." "Oh, Frank! how can you be so imprudent ?" "You, at any rate, have some decent feeling for Mary.

I believe you have some regard for her; and therefore I tell you.

Will you send her any message ?" "Oh, yes; my best, best love; that is if you will see her; but, Frank, you are very foolish, very; and she will be infinitely distressed." "Do not mention this, that is, not at present; not that I mean to make any secret of it.

I shall tell my father everything.

I'm off now!" and then, paying no attention to her remonstrance, he turned down the stairs and was soon on horseback.
He took the road to Boxall Hill, but he did not ride very fast: he did not go jauntily as a jolly, thriving wooer; but musingly, and often with diffidence, meditating every now and then whether it would not be better for him to turn back: to turn back--but not from fear of his mother; not from prudential motives; not because that often-repeated lesson as to marrying money was beginning to take effect; not from such causes as these; but because he doubted how he might be received by Mary.
He did, it is true, think something about his worldly prospects.