ht to be a happy man."

"No doubt he will be,--when he settles down to something. Everything
will come right for him. With some people things seem to go smooth;
don't they? They have not hitherto gone smoothly with you and me,
Emily."

"You are prosperous. You have everything before you that a man can
wish, if only you will allow yourself to think so. Your profession is
successful, and you are in Parliament, and everyone likes you."

"It is all nothing."

"That is the general discontent of the world."

"It is all nothing,--unless I have you too. Remember that I had said
so long before I was successful, when I did not dream of Parliament;
before we had heard of the name of the man who came between me and
my happiness. I think I am entitled to be believed when I say so.
I think I know my own mind. There are many men who would have been
changed by the episode of such a marriage."

"You ought to have been changed by it,--and by its result."

"It had no such effect. Here I am, after it all, telling you as
I used to tell you before, that I have to look to you for my
happiness."

"You should be ashamed to confess it, Arthur."

"Never;--not to you, nor to all the world. I know what it has been.
I know you are not now as you were then. You have been his wife, and
are now his widow."

"That should be enough."

"But, such as you are, my happiness is in your hands. If it were not
so, do you think that all my family as well as yours would join in
wishing that you may become my wife? There is nothing to conceal.
When you married that man you know what my mother thought of it;
and what John thought of it, and his wife. They had wanted you to
be my wife; and they want it now,--because they are anxious for
my happiness. And your father wishes it, and your brother wishes
it,--because they trust me, and think that I should be a good husband
to you."

"Good!" she exclaimed, hardly knowing what she meant by repeating the
word.

"After that you have no right to set yourself up to judge what may
be best for my happiness. They who know how to judge are all united.
Whatever you may have been, they believe that it will be good for me
that you should now be my wife. After that you must talk about me no
longer, unless you will talk of my wishes."

"Do you think I am not anxious for your happiness?"

"I do not know;--but I shall find out in time. That is what I have to
say about myself. And as to you, is it not much the same? I