“Cassandra, I swear by everything I hold sacred that I’d give him up if I thought he’d marry you instead. Why, I’d jump at it—we’d still have money in the family and I wouldn’t have to have him as a husband. I don’t want Scoatney—I don’t want a lot of luxury. All I ask is, not to go back to quite such hideous poverty—I won’t do that, I won’t, I won’t! And I’d have to, if I gave him up, because I know he wouldn’t fall in love with you. He just thinks of you as a little girl.”
