But, my dear child, do you really imagine he meant it--after all these years ?" She looked at him with a piteous little smile.

"He--he'd be worth having--if he did, wouldn't he ?" she said.
"I wonder," said Hill.
He waited for a few moments, then laid his hand upon her shoulder with a touch that seemed to her as heavy as the hand of the law.
"I can't help thinking," he said, "that you'd find a plain man like myself more satisfactory to live with.

It's for you to decide.

Only--it seems a pity to waste your life waiting for someone who will never come." She could not contradict him.

The argument was too obvious.