make all the difference. When Dora is married he will be
compelled to accept the inevitable and make the best of it."

"When Dora is married he will idealize her, and assure himself that her
marriage is the tragedy of both their lives."

"Dora will give him no reason to suppose such a thing. I am sure she
will not. She is too much in love with Mr. Stanhope to notice any other
lover."

"You are mistaken, Ethel. Swiftly as Fred was vanquished she noticed
it, and many times--once even while leaning on Mr. Stanhope's arm--she
turned the arrow in the heart wound with sweet little glances and
smiles, and pretty appeals to the blind adoration of her new lover. It
was, to me, a humiliating spectacle. How could she do it?"

"I am sure Dora meant no wrong. It is so natural for a lovely girl to
show off a little. She will marry and forget Fred Mostyn lives."

"And Fred will forget?"

"Fred will not forget."

"Then I shall be very sorry for your father and grandmother."

"What have they to do with Fred marrying?"

"A great deal. Fred has been so familiar and homely the last two or
three weeks, that they have come to look upon him as a future member
of the family. It has been 'Cousin Ethel' and 'Aunt Ruth' and even
'grandmother' and 'Cousin Fred,' and no objections have been made to the
use of such personal terms. I think your father hopes for a closer tie
between you and Fred Mostyn than cousinship."

"Whatever might have been is over. Do you imagine I could consent to be
the secondary deity, to come after Dora--Dora of all the girls I have
ever known? The idea is an insult to my heart and my intelligence.
Nothing on earth could make me submit to such an indignity."

"I do not suppose, Ethel, that any wife is the first object of her
husband's love."

"At least they tell her she is so, swear it an inch deep; and no woman
is fool enough to look beyond that oath, but when she is sure that she
is a second best! AH! That is not a position I will ever take in any
man's heart knowingly."

"Of course, Fred Mostyn will have to marry."

"Of course, he will make a duty of the event. The line of Mostyns must
be continued. England might go to ruin if the Mostyns perished off the
English earth; but, Aunt Ruth, I count myself worthy of a better fate
than to become a mere branch in the genealogical tree of the Mostyns.
And that is all Fred Mostyn's wife will ever be to him, unless he
marries Dora."

"But that very supposition im