Florence would have left the room, but Mary clasped her dress, and detained her.
"Mr.Stewart, you have been too harsh and hasty in your decision, and too severe in your remarks.

Florry has not forfeited your love, though she acted imprudently.

Ask your own heart whether you would be willing to expose to her eye your every foible and weakness.

For you, like all God's creatures, have faults of your own.

Is there nothing you have left untold relative to your past?
Oh! if you knew how deep and unutterable has been her love, even when she never again expected to meet you, you would forget this momentary weakness--a fault committed from the very intensity of her love, and fear lest she should sink in your estimation." "Mary, if she had said, Dudley, I have not always felt as now, and my mind was darkened for a time, I should have loved her, if possible, more than before, for her noble candor.