`` I surprise myself , perhaps . But I mean it , Worth . I am a rich , lonely old man and I want to keep this new interest you have brought into my life . Stay with me . I will try to give you a very happy life , my child , and all I have shall be yours . '' Seeing her troubled face , he added , `` There , I do n't ask you to decide right here . I suppose you have other claims to adjust . Take time to think it over . '' `` Thank you , '' said Worth . She went back to the Grange as one in a dream and shut herself up in the white southeast room to think . She knew that she wanted to accept this unexpected offer of Uncle Paul 's . Worth 's loyal tongue had never betrayed , even to the loving aunts , any discontent in the prairie farm life that had always been hers . But it had been a hard life for the girl , narrow and poverty-bounded . She longed to put forth her hand and take this other life which opened so temptingly before her . She knew , too , that her mother , ambitious for her child , would not be likely to interpose any objections . She had only to go to Uncle Paul and all that she longed for would be given her , together with the faithful , protecting fatherly love and care that in all its strength and sweetness had never been hers . She must decide for herself . Not even of Aunt Charlotte or Aunt Ellen could she ask advice . She knew they would entreat her to accept , and she needed no such incentive to her own wishes . Far on into the night Worth sat at the white-curtained dormer window , looking at the stars over the apple trees , and fighting her battle between inclination and duty .
It was a hard and stubbornly contested battle , but with that square chin and those unfaltering grey eyes it could end XXXXX only one way .
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