I accept the situation, since you will have it
so; be as just and considerate henceforward as you have been to-night,
and trust me that it shall bring no shadow between us--shall never
make you less to me than you are now."
"But it must," she insisted. "I cannot now be other than one wife
among many; and what place I hold among them is, remember, for you and
you alone to fix. No rule, no custom, obliges you to give any
preference in form or fact to one, merely because you chanced to marry
her first."
"Such, nevertheless, did not seem to be the practice in your father's
house. Your mother was as distinctly wife and mistress as if his sole
companion."
"My father," she replied, "did not marry a second time till within my
own memory; and it was natural and usual to give the first place to
one so much older and more experienced. I have no such claim, and when
you see my companions you may find good reason to think that I am the
least fit of all to take the first place. Nor," she added, drawing me
from the room, "do I wish it. If only you will keep in your mind one
little place for the memory of our visit to your vessel and your
promise respecting it, I shall be more than content.
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