We love romance, but we seek it in its true home.

Do you think I would marry you for gratitude, Andrew ?" "No," I said.
"Or for admiration ?" "No," said I.
"Or for love ?" "Yes," I said, with a sudden joy.
She slipped from the rock, her eyes soft and misty.

Her arms were about my neck, and I heard from her the words I had dreamed of and yet scarce hoped for, the words of the song sung long ago to a boy's ear, and spoken now with the pure fervour of the heart--"My dear and only love." Years have flown since that day on the hills, and much has befallen; but the prologue is the kernel of my play, and the curtain which rose after that hour revealed things less worthy of chronicle.

Why should I tell of how my trade prospered mightily, and of the great house we built at Middle Plantation; of my quarrels with Nicholson, which were many; of how we carved a fair estate out of Elspeth's inheritance, and led the tide of settlement to the edge of the hills?
These things would seem a pedestrian end to a high beginning.

Nor would I weary the reader with my doings in the Assembly, how I bearded more Governors than one, and disputed stoutly with His Majesty's Privy Council in London.