"What then ?" he asked, his voice harsh, and, obeying her command and the pressure on his hand, he resumed his seat beside her.
She spoke now at length and very gravely, dwelling upon the circumstance that he was the head of the family, the last Westmacott of his line, pointing out to him the importance of his existence, the insignificance of her own.

She was but a girl, a thing of small account where the perpetuation of a family was at issue.

After all, she must marry somebody some day, she repeated, and perhaps she had been foolish in attaching too much importance to the tales she had heard of Mr.
Wilding.

Probably he was no worse than other men, and after all he was a gentleman of wealth and position, such a man as half the women in Somerset might be proud to own for husband.
Her arguments and his weakness--his returning cowardice, which made him lend an ear to those same arguments--prevailed with him; at least they convinced him that he was far too important a person to risk his life in this quarrel upon which he had so rashly entered.

He did not say that he was convinced; but he said that he would give the matter thought, hinting that perhaps some other way might present itself of cancelling the bargain she had made.