He will keep us here until one of us consents to marry him . '' `` It wo n't be me , then , '' said Melissa in a calm sort of rage . `` I wo n't marry him if I have to sit on this roof for the rest of my life . You can take him . It 's really you he wants , anyway ; he asked you first . '' I always knew that rankled with Melissa . I thought the situation over before I said anything more . We certainly could n't get off that roof , and if we could , there was Julius Caesar . The place was out of sight of every other house in Jersey Cove , and nobody might come near it for a week . To be sure , when Melissa and I did n't turn up the Covites might get out and search for us ; but that would n't be for two or three days anyhow . Melissa had turned her back on me and was sitting with her elbows propped up on her knees , looking gloomily out to sea . I was afraid I could n't coax her into marrying Isaac . As for me , I had n't any real objection to marrying him , after all , for if he was short of romance he was good-natured and has a fat bank account ; but I hated to be driven into it that way . `` You 'd better take him , Melissa , '' I said entreatingly . `` I 've had one husband and that is enough . '' `` More than enough for me , thank you , '' said Melissa sarcastically . `` Isaac is a fine man and has a lovely house ; and you are n't sure the Kingsbridge man really means anything , '' I went on . `` I would rather , '' said Melissa , with the same awful calmness , `` jump down from this roof and break my neck , or be devoured piecemeal by that fiend down there than marry Isaac Appleby . '' It did n't seem worth while to say anything more after that . We sat there in stony silence and the time dragged by .
I was hot , hungry , thirsty , cross ; and besides , I felt that I was in a ridiculous position , which was worse XXXXX all the rest .
To by for if in into on than until with