l that is done in earnest towards Heaven and man ennobles and is
ennobled.'

'True; but it needs a great soul and much indifference to creature
comforts. Now, think of us, at our age, our relations' welcome worn
out--'

'I thought you were desired to make Worthbourne your home.'

'Yes, there was no want of kindness there; but, my dear, if you could
only imagine the dulness. It was as if the whole place had been potted
and preserved in Sir Roger de Coverley's time. No neighbours, no
club-books, no anything! One managed to vegetate through the morning by
the help of being deputy to good Lady Bountiful; but oh! the evenings!
Sir Antony always asleep after tea, and no one allowed to speak, lest
he should be awakened, and the poor, imbecile son bringing out the
draught-board, and playing with us all in turn. Fancy that, by way
of enlivenment to poor Georgina after her nervous fever! I was quite
alarmed about her,--her spirits seemed depressed for ever into apathy!'

'I should think them in more danger now.'

'Oh! her Finch is a manageable bird. Her life is in her own power, and
she will have plenty of all that makes it agreeable. It is winning a
home instead of working for it; that is the common sense view--'

'Winning it by the vow to love, honour, and obey, when she knows she
cannot?'

'Oh, she may in the end. He is tame, and kind, and very much obliged. My
dear Theodora, I could feel with you once; but one learns to see things
in a different light as one lives on. After all, I have not done the
thing.'

'If you did not promote it, you justify it.'

'May I not justify my sister to her friend?'

'I do no such thing. I do not justify Arthur. I own that he has acted
wrongly; but--No, I cannot compare the two cases. His was silly and bad
enough, but it was a marriage, not a bargain.'

'Well, perhaps one may turn out as well as the other.'

'I am afraid so,' sighed Theodora.

'It has been a sad grief to you, so fond of your brother as you were.'

'Not that I see much harm in the girl,' continued Theodora; 'but--'

'But it is the loss of your brother! Do you know, I think it likely he
may not be as much lost to you as if he had chosen a superior person.
When the first fancy is over, such a young unformed thing as this cannot
have by any means the influence that must belong to you. You will find
him recurring to you as before.'

Meanwhile, Violet sat formal and forlorn in the drawing-room, and Lady
Martindale