I had reckoned on leading her to higher things by means of a little earnest exhortation on the subject of her marriage.

And now, if she was to be believed, no such event as her marriage was to take place at all.

But ah, my friends! a working Christian of my experience (with an evangelising prospect before her) takes broader views than these.

Supposing Rachel really broke off the marriage, on which the Ablewhites, father and son, counted as a settled thing, what would be the result?
It could only end, if she held firm, in an exchanging of hard words and bitter accusations on both sides.

And what would be the effect on Rachel when the stormy interview was over?
A salutary moral depression would be the effect.