Some women don't care for children--but I should have loved mine!" She paused a moment, and Helmsley took her hand, and silently pressed it in his own.
"However,"-- she went on, more lightly--"it's no good grieving over what cannot be helped.

No man has ever really loved me--because, of course, the one I was engaged to wouldn't have thrown me over just because I was poor if he had cared very much about me.

And I shall be thirty-five this year--so I must--I really _must_"-- and she gave herself an admonitory little shake--"settle down! After all there are worse things in life than being an old maid.

I don't mind it--it's only sometimes when I feel inclined to grizzle, that I think to myself what a lot of love I've got in my heart--all wasted!" "Wasted ?" echoed Helmsley, gently--"Do you think love is ever wasted ?" Her eyes grew serious and dreamy.
"Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't"-- she answered--"When I begin to like a person very much I often pull myself back and say 'Take care! Perhaps he doesn't like _you!_'" "Oh! The person must be a 'he' then!" said Helmsley, smiling a little.
She coloured.
"Oh no--not exactly!--but I mean,--now, for instance,"-- and she spoke rapidly as though to cover some deeper feeling--"I like _you_ very much--indeed I'm fond of you, David!--I've got to know you so well, and to understand all your ways--but I can't be sure that you like _me_ as much as I like _you_, can I ?" He looked at her kind and noble face with eyes full of tenderness and gratitude.
"If you can be sure of anything, you can be sure of that!"-- he said--"To say I 'like' you would be a poor way of expressing myself.

I owe my very life to you--and though I am only an old poor man, I would say I loved you if I dared!" She smiled--and her whole face shone with the reflected sunshine of her soul.
"Say it, David dear! Do say it! I should like to hear it!" He drew the hand he held to his lips, and gently kissed it.
"I love you, Mary!" he said--"As a father loves a daughter I love you, and bless you! You have been a good angel to me--and I only wish I were not so old and weak and dependent on your care.