She thought of Mrs.Ray smitten down and dependent upon those about her for help in every simple office of life, and she thought of the promise she had made to Ralph.

"Promise me," he had said, "that you will stay in the old home as long as mother lives." And she had promised; her pledged word was registered in heaven.
But then, again, perhaps Ralph had not foreseen that his mother might live for years in her present state.

No doubt he thought her near to death.

He could not have intended that she should live long in his brother's house.
Yet he _had_ so intended.

"He will ask you to be his wife, Rotha," Ralph had said, "but he can't do so yet." This brought her memory back to the earlier events of the morning.
Willy Ray had already asked her to become his wife.