Mr. Farebrother was silent for a minute or more, and then, as they turned and paused under the shadow of a maple at the end of a grassy walk, said, “I understand that you resist any attempt to fetter you, but either your feeling for Fred Vincy excludes your entertaining another attachment, or it does not: either he may count on your remaining single until he shall have earned your hand, or he may in any case be disappointed. Pardon me, Mary⁠—you know I used to catechise you under that name⁠—but when the state of a woman’s affections touches the happiness of another life⁠—of more lives than one⁠—I think it would be the nobler course for her to be perfectly direct and open.”