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“ Should you call it bad news to be told that you were to live at Stone Court , and manage the farm , and be remarkably prudent , and save money every year till all the stock and furniture were your own , and you were a distinguished agricultural character , as Mr . Borthrop Trumbull says — rather stout , I fear , and with the Greek and Latin sadly weather - worn ? ” “ You don’t mean anything except nonsense , Mary ? ” said Fred , coloring slightly nevertheless . “ That is what my father has just told me of as what may happen , and he never talks nonsense , ” said Mary , looking up at Fred now , while he grasped her hand as they walked , till it rather hurt her ; but she would not complain . “ Oh , I could be a tremendously good fellow then , Mary , and we could be married directly . ” “ Not so fast , sir ; how do you know that I would not rather defer our marriage for some years ? That would leave you time to misbehave , and then if I liked some one else better , I should have an excuse for jilting you . ” “ Pray don’t joke , Mary , ” said Fred , with strong feeling . “ Tell me seriously that all this is true , and that you are happy because of it — because you love me best . ” “ It is all true , Fred , and I am happy because of it — because I love you best , ” said Mary , in a tone of obedient recitation . They lingered on the door - step under the steep - roofed porch , and Fred almost in a whisper said — “ When we were first engaged , with the umbrella - ring , Mary , you used to — ” The spirit of joy began to laugh more decidedly in Mary’s eyes , but the fatal Ben came running to the door with Brownie yapping behind him , and , bouncing against them , said — “ Fred and Mary ! are you ever coming in ? — or may I eat your cake ? ” FINALE . Every limit is a beginning as well as an ending . Who can quit young lives after being long in company with them , and not desire to know what befell them in their after - years ? For the fragment of a life , however typical , is not the sample of an even web : promises may not be kept , and an ardent outset may be followed by declension ; latent powers may find their long - waited opportunity ; a past error may urge a grand retrieval . Marriage , which has been the bourne of so many narratives , is still a great beginning , as it was to Adam and Eve , who kept their honeymoon in Eden , but had their first little one among the thorns and thistles of the wilderness . It is still the beginning of the home epic — the gradual conquest or irremediable loss of that complete union which makes the advancing years a climax , and age the harvest of sweet memories in common . Some set out , like Crusaders of old , with a glorious equipment of hope and enthusiasm and get broken by the way , wanting patience with each other and the world .
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