Now he must unsay what he had then said; he must plead against his own pleadings, and explain to her that he desired to postpone the marriage rather than to hasten it,--a task which, I presume, must always be an unpleasant one for any man engaged to be married.

"I might as well do it at once," he said to himself, as he bobbed his head forward into his hands by way of returning thanks for the termination of Mr Boyce's sermon.
As he had only three days left, it was certainly as well that he should do this at once.

Seeing that Lily had no fortune, she could not in justice complain of a prolonged engagement.

That was the argument which he used in his own mind.

But he as often told himself that she would have very great ground of complaint if she were left for a day unnecessarily in doubt as to this matter.