Janet wore her ugly black dress and looked her very worst , her eyes and nose red from crying . They talked little , for Janet seemed faintly to resent Anne 's efforts to cheer her up . She plainly preferred to be miserable . Suddenly the gate-latch clicked and John Douglas strode into the garden . He walked towards them straight over the geranium bed . Janet stood up . So did Anne . Anne was a tall girl and wore a white dress ; but John Douglas did not see her . `` Janet , '' he said , `` will you marry me ? '' The words burst out as if they had been wanting to be said for twenty years and MUST be uttered now , before anything else . Janet 's face was so red from crying that it could n't turn any redder , so it turned a most unbecoming purple . `` Why did n't you ask me before ? '' she said slowly . `` I could n't . She made me promise not to -- mother made me promise not to . Nineteen years ago she took a terrible spell . We thought she could n't live through it . She implored me to promise not to ask you to marry me while she was alive . I did n't want to promise such a thing , even though we all thought she could n't live very long -- the doctor only gave her six months . But she begged it on her knees , sick and suffering .
I had XXXXX promise . ''
ago before from into on over though through to towards