But this matter is so important to her as well as to me that I am
compelled to lay aside all pretence. If she do not love me as I
love her, then the whole thing drops to the ground. Then it will
be for me to take myself off from out of your notice,--and from
hers, and to keep to myself whatever heart-breaking I may have to
undergo. But if she be as steadfast in this matter as I am,--if her
happiness be fixed on marrying me as mine to marrying her,--then, I
think, I am entitled to ask you whether you are justified in
keeping us apart.
'I know well what are the discrepancies. Speaking from my own
feeling I regard very little those of rank. I believe myself to be
as good a gentleman as though my father's forefathers had sat for
centuries past in the House of Lords. I believe that you would
have thought so also had you and I been brought in contact on any
other subject. The discrepancy with regard to money is, I own, a
great trouble to me. Having no wealth of my own I wish that your
daughter were so circumstanced that I could go out into the world
and earn bread for her.
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