Todd Compton writes on Joseph's proposal to Lucy Walker.
Todd Compton, In Sacred Lonliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 1997), 464
Smith saw that Lucy was unhappy and sought another interview with her in late April. He told her that the marriage would have to be secret, but that he would acknowledge her as his wife "beyond the Rocky Mountains." He emphasized that this was not a proposal that she could accept or reject according to a romantic whim. To refuse him would bring damnation: "It is a command of God to you." Furthermore, there was a time limit: "I will give you untill to-morrow to decide this matter. If you reject this message the gate will be closed forever against you." This statement infuriated the sixteen-year-old girl: "This arroused every drop of scotch in my veins . . . I felt at this moment that I was called to place myself upon the altar a liveing Sacrafice, perhaps to brook the world in disgrace and incur the displeasure and contempt of my youthful companions; all my dreams of happiness blown to the four winds, this was too much, the thought was unbearable." Like Helen Mar at the age of fourteen, Lucy thought of her peer group and of the disaster that polygamy would bring to her teenage dreams.