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 to promise . '' `` What had your mother against me ? '' cried Janet . `` Nothing -- nothing . She just did n't want another woman -- ANY woman -- there while she was living . She said if I did n't promise she 'd die right there and I 'd have killed her . So I promised .
And she 's held me to that promise ever since , though I 've gone on my knees to her in my turn to beg her XXXXX let me off . ''
So against ago before if on though through to while