s nothing interest you now beyond your own
misfortunes?"

"Alas, no. I fear not."

"But this shall interest you. You must be awaked to the affairs of
the world--especially such an affair as this. You must be shaken up.
This I suppose will shake you up. If not, you must be past all hope."

"What on earth is it?"

"Sir Francis Geraldine--! You have heard at any rate of Sir Francis
Geraldine."

"Well, yes; I have not as yet forgotten the name."

"I should think not. Sir Francis Geraldine has--" And then she paused
again.

"Cut his little finger," said Cecilia. Had she dreamed of what was
to come she would not have turned Sir Francis into ridicule. But she
had been aware of Miss Altifiorla's friendship with Sir Francis,--or
rather what she had regarded as an affectation of friendship, and did
not for a moment anticipate such a communication as was to be made to
her.

"Cecilia Holt--"

"That at any rate is not my name."

"I dare say you wish it were."

"I would not change my real name for that of any woman under the
sun."

"Perhaps not; but there are other women in a position of less
grandeur. I am going to change mine."

"No!"

"I thought you would be surprised because it would look as though I
were about to abandon my great doctrine. It is not so. My opinions on
that great subject are not in the least changed. But of course there
must be some women whom the exigencies of the world will require to
marry."

"A good many, first and last."

"About the good many I do not at this moment concern myself. My duty
is clearly before me and I mean to perform it. I have been asked to
ally myself--;" then there was a pause, and the speaker discovered
when it was too late that she was verging on the ridiculous in
declaring her purpose of forming an alliance;--"that is to say, I am
going to marry Sir Francis Geraldine."

"Sir Francis Geraldine!"

"Do you see any just cause or impediment?"

"None in the least. And yet how am I to answer such a question? I saw
cause or impediment why I should not marry him."

"You both saw it, I suppose?" said Miss Altifiorla, with an air of
grandeur. "You both supposed that you were not made for each other,
and wisely determined to give up the idea. You did not remain single,
and I suppose we need not either."

"Certainly not for my sake."

"Our intimacy since that time has been increased by circumstances,
and we have now discovered that we can both of us best suit our own