They clasped hands over the Bible , in their mother 's vacant room , and both vowed to each other that they would never marry and would always live together . Ellen 's condition improved from that hour . She soon regained her normal cheery poise . For ten years she and Rosemary lived in the old house happily , undisturbed by any thought of marrying or giving in marriage . Their promise sat very lightly on them . Ellen never failed to remind her sister of it whenever any eligible male creature crossed their paths , but she had never been really alarmed until John Meredith came home that night with Rosemary . As for Rosemary , Ellen 's obsession regarding that promise had always been a little matter of mirth to her -- until lately . Now , it was a merciless fetter , self-imposed but never to be shaken off . Because of it to-night she must turn her face from happiness . It was true that the shy , sweet , rosebud love she had given to her boy-lover she could never give to another . But she knew now that she could give to John Meredith a love richer and more womanly . She knew that he touched deeps in her nature that Martin had never touched -- that had not , perhaps , been in the girl of seventeen to touch . And she must send him away to-night -- send him back to his lonely hearth and his empty life and his heart-breaking problems , because she had promised Ellen , ten years before , on their mother 's Bible , that she would never marry . John Meredith did not immediately grasp his opportunity . On the contrary , he talked for two good hours on the least lover-like of subjects . He even tried politics , though politics always bored Rosemary . The later began to think that she had been altogether mistaken , and her fears and expectations suddenly seemed to her grotesque . She felt flat and foolish . The glow went out of her face and the lustre out of her eyes . John Meredith had not the slightest intention of asking her to marry him .
And then , quite suddenly , he rose , came across the room , and standing XXXXX her chair , he asked it .
For On because by from of over that though to