f I gave them decent dwellings,
decent conduct would ensue. It is so. God knows that I feel its truth
more keenly than my reproachers."

"The dwellings are good enough for the poor."

"Sibylla! You cannot think it. The laws of God and man alike demand a
change. Child," he continued in a softer tone, as he took her hand in
his, "let us bring the case home to ourselves. Suppose that you and I
had to sleep in a room a few feet square, no chimney, no air, and that
others tenanted it with us? Girls and boys growing up--nay, grown up,
some of them; men and women as we are, Sibylla. The beds huddled
together, no space between them; sickness, fever----"

"I am only shutting my ears," interrupted Sibylla. "You pretend to be so
careful of me--you would not even let me go to that masked ball in
Paris--and yet you put these horrid pictures into my mind! I think you
ought to be ashamed of it, Lionel. People sleeping in the same room with
us!"

"If the picture be revolting, what must be the reality?" was his
rejoinder. "_They_ have to endure it."

"They are used to it," retorted Sibylla. "They are brought up to nothing
better."

"Just so. And therefore their perceptions of right and wrong are
deadened. The wonder is, not that Alice Hook has lost herself, but
that----"

"I don't want to hear about Alice Hook," interrupted Sibylla. "She is
not very good to talk about."

"I have been openly told, Sibylla, that the reproach should lie at my
door."

"I believe it is not the first reproach of the kind that has been cast
on you," answered Sibylla, with cutting sarcasm.

He did not know what she meant, or in what sense to take the remark; but
his mind was too preoccupied to linger on it. "With these things staring
me in the face, how can I find money for superfluous vanities? The time
has come when I am compelled to make a stand against it. I will, I must,
have decent dwellings on my estate, and I shall set about the work
without a day's loss of time. For that reason, if for no other, I cannot
buy the ponies."

"I have bought them," coolly interrupted Sibylla.

"Then, my dear, you must forgive me if I countermand the purchase. I am
resolute, Sibylla," he continued, in a firm tone. "For the first time
since our marriage, I must deny your wish. I cannot let you bring me to
beggary, because it would also involve you. Another year or two of this
extravagance, and I should be on the verge of it."

Sibylla flung his arms from her