One thing was clear enough. The fiction of a mere friendship between
himself and Ida was impossible to support. It had been impossible
under the very different circumstances of a year ago, and was not
likely to last a week, now that Ida could so little conceal how her
own feelings had changed. What, then, was to be their future? Could
he accept her love, and join their lives without legal bond,
thinking only of present happiness, and content to let things
arrange themselves as they would in the years to come?
His heart strongly opposed such a step. Clearly Ida had changed her
life for his sake, and was undergoing hardships in the hope of
winning his respect as well as his love. Would she have done all
this without something of a hope that she might regain her place in
the every-day world, and be held by Waymark worthy to become his
wife? He could not certainly know, but there was little doubt that
this hope had led her on. Could he believe her capable of yet nobler
ideas; could he think that only in reverence of the sanctity of
love, and without regard to other things, she had acted in this way;
then, regarding her as indeed his equal, he would open his heart to
her and speak somewhat in this way.
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