He had to look another way, and then she even smiled, a little forlornly.
"Do you mind talking it over with me, Grizel ?" he asked.

"I have always been well aware that you did not care for me in that way, but nevertheless I believe you might do worse." "No woman could do better," she answered gravely.

"I should like you to talk it over, David, if you begin at the beginning"; and she sat down with her hands crossed.
"I won't say what a good thing it would be for me," was his beginning; "we may take that for granted." "I don't think we can," she remarked; "but it scarcely matters at present.

That is not the beginning, David." He was very anxious to make it the beginning.
"I am weary of living in lodgings," he said.

"The practice suffers by my not being married.