"Love is an utterly bygone, sorry, worn-
out, miserable thing with me -- for him or any one else."
"Well, your want of love seems to me the one thing
that takes away harm from such an agreement with him.
If wild heat had to do wi' it, making ye long to over-
come the awkwardness about your husband's vanishing,
it mid be wrong; but a cold-hearted agreement to oblige
a man seems different, somehow. The real sin, ma'am
in my mind, lies in thinking of ever wedding wi' a man
you don't love honest and true."
"That I'm willing to pay the penalty of." said Bath-
sheba, firmly. "You know, Gabriel, this is what I can-
not get off my conscience -- that I once seriously injured
him in sheer idleness. If I had never played a trick
upon him, he would never have wanted to marry me.
O if I could only pay some heavy damages in money
to him for the harm I did, and so get the sin off my
soul that way!.. Well, there's the debt, which can
only be discharged in one way, and I believe I am
bound to do it if it honestly lies in my power, without
any consideration of my own future at all.
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