CHAPTER XXXV 522
" Then why does he follow you so with his eyes, and get you so frequently alone with him, and keep you so continually at his side? Mary and I had both concluded he wished you to marry him."
" He does-- he has asked me to be his wife."
Diana clapped her hands. " That is just what we hoped and thought! And you will marry him, Jane, won ' t you? And then he will stay in England."
" Far from that, Diana; his sole idea in proposing to me is to procure a fitting fellow-labourer in his Indian toils."
" What! He wishes you to go to India?" " Yes."
" Madness!" she exclaimed. " You would not live three months there, I am certain. You never shall go: you have not consented, have you, Jane?"
" I have refused to marry him-- " " And have consequently displeased him?" she suggested.
" Deeply: he will never forgive me, I fear: yet I offered to accompany him as his sister."
" It was frantic folly to do so, Jane. Think of the task you undertook-- one of incessant fatigue, where fatigue kills even the strong, and you are weak. St. John-- you know him-- would urge you to impossibilities: with him there would be no permission to rest during the hot hours; and unfortunately, I have noticed, whatever he exacts, you force yourself to perform. I am astonished you found courage to refuse his hand. You do not love him then, Jane?"
" Not as a husband."