only
resource was a cheerful acquiescence in Emilia's luck, and a judicious
propitiation of the accepted favorite.

"I wouldn't mind playing Virtue Rewarded myself, young woman," said
Blanche, "at such a scale of prices. I would do it even to so slow an
audience as old Lambert. But you see, it isn't my line. Don't forget
your humble friends when you come into your property, that's all."
Then the tender coterie of innocents entered on some preliminary
consideration of wedding-dresses.

When Emilia came home, she dismissed the whole matter lightly as a
settled thing, evaded all talk with Aunt Jane, and coolly said to Kate
that she had no objection to Mr. Lambert, and might as well marry him as
anybody else.

"I am not like you and Hal, you know," said she. "I have no fancy for
love in a cottage. I never look well in anything that is not costly. I
have not a taste that does not imply a fortune. What is the use of love?
One marries for love, and is unhappy ever after. One marries for money,
and perhaps gets love after all. I dare say Mr. Lambert loves me, though
I do not see why he should."

"I fear he does," said Kate, almost severely.

"Fear?" said Emilia.

"Yes," said Kate. "It is an unequal bargain, where one side does all the
loving."

"Don't be troubled," said Emilia. "I dare say he will not love me long.
Nobody ever did!" And her eyes filled with tears which she dashed away
angrily, as she ran up to her room.

It was harder yet for her to talk with Hope, but she did it, and that in
a very serious mood. She had never been so open with her sister.

"Aunt Jane once told me," she said, "that my only safety was in marrying
a good man. Now I am engaged to one."

"Do you love him, Emilia?" asked Hope, gravely.

"Not much," said Emilia, honestly. "But perhaps I shall, by and by."

"Emilia," cried Hope, "there is no such thing as happiness in a marriage
without love."

"Mine is not without love," the girl answered. "He loves me. It
frightens me to see how much he loves me. I can have the devotion of a
lifetime, if I will. Perhaps it is hard to receive it in such a way, but
I can have it. Do you blame me very much?"

Hope hesitated. "I cannot blame you so much, my child," she said, "as if
I thought it were money for which you cared. It seems to me that there
must be something beside that, and yet--"

"O Hope, how I thank you," interrupted Emilia. "It is not money. You
know I do not care about money, except