Page:Under the greenwood tree (1872 Volume 2).pdf/167
difference between them—his respirations gradually grew quieter and less rapid after the enunciation; hers, from having been low and regular, increased in quickness and force, till she almost panted.
'I cannot, I cannot, Mr. Maybold—I cannot. Don't ask me!' she said.
'Don't answer in a hurry!' he entreated. 'And do listen to me. This is no sudden feeling on my part. I have loved you for more than six months! Perhaps my late interest in teaching the children here has not been so single-minded as it seemed. You will understand my motive—like me better, perhaps—for honestly telling you that I have struggled against my emotion continually, because I have thought that it was not well for me to love you! But I resolve to struggle no longer; I have examined the feeling; and the love I bear you is as genuine as that I could bear any wo-