And, what is more, he is so frightfully interesting:
whatever he says and does, he always makes you think about him. Now,
however fond you were of Chris--and he really is very good and kind in
some ways--you could never think about him: it would be such dreadfully
uninteresting thinking, if you did."

"I don't know about that; Christopher is very comfortable and homelike,
somehow," replied Felicia.

"So are rice-puddings and flannel petticoats, but you don't occupy your
most exalted moments in meditating upon them."

"Do you know, Elisabeth, I sometimes think that Christopher is in love
with you." Unlike Elisabeth, Felicia never saw what did not exist, and
therefore was able sometimes to perceive what did.

"Good gracious, what an idea! He'd simply roar with laughter at the mere
thought of such a thing! Why, Christopher isn't capable of falling in
love with anybody; he hasn't got it in him, he is so frightfully
matter-of-fact."

Felicia looked dubious. "Then don't you think he will ever marry?"

"Oh, yes, he'll marry fast enough--a sweet, domestic woman, who plays
the piano and does crochet-work; and he will talk to her about the price
of iron and the integrity of the empire, and will think that he is
making love, and she will think so too. And they will both of them go
down to their graves without ever finding out that the life is more than
meat or the body than raiment."

Elisabeth was very hard on Christopher just then, and nothing that
Felicia could say succeeded in softening her. Women are apt to be hard
when they are quite young--and sometimes even later.

Felicia Herbert was the eldest of a large family. Her parents, though
well-to-do, were not rich; and it was the dream of Mrs. Herbert's life
that her daughter's beauty should bring about a great match. She was a
good woman according to her lights, and a most excellent wife and
mother; but if she had a weakness--and who (except, of course, one's
self) is without one?--that weakness was social ambition.

"You will understand, my dear," she said confidentially to Elisabeth,
"that it would be the greatest comfort to Mr. Herbert and myself to see
Felicia married to a God-fearing man; and, of course, if he kept his
own carriage as well we should be all the better satisfied."

"I don't think that money really makes people happy," replied Elisabeth,
strong in the unworldliness of those who have never known what it is to
do without anything that money can buy.