He opened his door and called Mary gently. As she came in, she asked with surprise, "Where's Laurence?"
"He went off for a little walk.... Sit down, my dear, I want to talk to you."
Mary, with a startled and reluctant look, sat down on the sofa. She disliked the atmosphere of this room, not so much the tobacco-flavour as the flavour of the confessional. She was used to hearing low-toned murmurs coming from it through the closed door, and sometimes sounds of pain and weeping. And now she had an instant feeling that _she_ was in the confessional, as had happened a few times before during her girlhood, occasions of which she retained a definite impression of fear.
"Mary, are you sure you're doing right?" asked the doctor abruptly, yet gently.
"About marrying now. Laurence tells me you are ready to marry him, at once."
"Yes, I am ready," said Mary, with a forced calmness. "We have been engaged four years. I always expected to marry him when he came back."
"And you haven't changed your mind at all, in those four years? You were very young, you know--it would be natural that you should change."
"In some ways, you have.... But you mean not in that way. You still love Laurence, as much as ever?"
"Yes," said Mary, her heart beating fast and sending a deep flush into her cheeks.
"Because, you know, you are not bound to marry him," said the doctor sharply.
"Don't you think that a promise is binding?" asked Mary.
"Certainly not--that kind of a promise! Are you going to marry him just because you promised?"
"I have no wish to break my promise," said Mary.
"Because it's a promise, or because you want to marry him anyway and would, if you hadn't promised? Come, Mary, answer me!"
"I want to keep my promise," said Mary clearly, with a look of the most perfect obstinacy in her fair eyes.
The doctor was hot-tempered, and banged a book on his desk with his fist. But instantly he controlled himself, for he loved this exasperating child of his, and there was no one but himself to stand between her and harm--so he felt it.
"You mean," he said tenderly, "that you haven't any reason _not_ to keep it?"
"And Laurence loves you and depends on you."
"You feel it would be wrong to disappoint him--desert him."