"Why should we wait?
I have wealth, which woos you to enjoy it.

I have arrived at the fulness of manhood, and you are in the rosetime of your life.

Why should we wait?
For circumstances to divide,--for time to chill,--or death to destroy?
No, no; when you gave me your heart, you gave me yourself; and I claim you as my own, without formal scruples or unnecessary delay." Mrs.Linwood exerted all her eloquence with her son to induce him to defer the union at least one year, till I had seen something of the world,--till I was better acquainted with my own heart.
"Yes! wait till she loses the freshness and simplicity that won me,--the sweetness and ingenuousness that enchained me!" he cried impetuously.
"Wait till she has been flattered and spoiled by a vain and deceiving world; till she learns to prize the admiration of many better than the true love of one; till she becomes that tinsel thing my soul abhors, a false and worldly woman.

No! give her to me now," he added, clasping me to his heart with irresistible tenderness and passion.

"Give her to me now, in the bloom of her innocence, the flower of her youth, and I will enshrine her in my heart as in a crystal vase, which they must break to harm her." The strong love and the strong will united were not to be opposed.