If I could get a hundred, or say, two hundred pounds for my book when it is finished, I could ask her to marry me then, because I could bring that money to her and do something to keep up the home.

I never want anything sweeter or prettier than this little cottage to live in.

If she would let me share it with her as her husband, we should live a perfectly happy life--a life that thousands would envy us! That is, of course, if she loved me." "Ay!--that's a very important 'if,'" said Helmsley.
"I know it is.

That's why I want you to help me to find out her mind, David--will you?
Because, if you should discover that I am objectionable to her in any way, it would be better for me, I think, to go straight away from Weircombe, and fight my trouble out by myself.

Then, you see, she would never know that I wanted to bother her with my life-long presence.