I lost no time beating about the bush, but spoke out plainly what was on my mind.
'Mary,' I said, 'I have not come to Aros without a hope.

If that should prove well founded, we may all leave and go somewhere else, secure of daily bread and comfort; secure, perhaps, of something far beyond that, which it would seem extravagant in me to promise.

But there's a hope that lies nearer to my heart than money.' And at that I paused.

'You can guess fine what that is, Mary,' I said.

She looked away from me in silence, and that was small encouragement, but I was not to be put off.
'All my days I have thought the world of you,' I continued; 'the time goes on and I think always the more of you; I could not think to be happy or hearty in my life without you: you are the apple of my eye.' Still she looked away, and said never a word; but I thought I saw that her hands shook.