ereas her aunt was a single lady with moderate
means, she would be a single lady with very small means indeed. But
that question of means did not go far with her; there was something
so much more important that she could put that out of sight. She had
told herself very plainly that it was a good thing for a woman to be
married; that she would live and die unsuccessfully if she lived and
died a single woman; that she had desired to do better with herself
than that. Was it proper that she should now give up all such
ambition because she had made a mistake? If it were proper, she would
do so; and then the question resolved itself into this;--Could she be
right if she married a man without loving him? To marry a man without
esteeming him, without the possibility of loving him hereafter, she
knew would be wrong.

Mrs. Fenwick's letter was as follows;--

Vicarage, Tuesday.

MY DEAR MARY,

My brother-in-law left us yesterday, and has put us all
into a twitter. He said, just as he was going away, that
he didn't believe that Lord Trowbridge had any right to
give away the ground, because it had not been in his
possession or his family's for a great many years, or
something of that sort. We don't clearly understand all
about it, nor does he; but he is to find out something
which he says he can find out, and then let us know.
But in the middle of all this, Frank declares that he
won't stir in the matter, and that if he could put the
abominable thing down by holding up his finger, he would
not do it. And he has made me promise not to talk about
it, and, therefore, all I can do is to be in a twitter.
If that spiteful old man has really given away land
that doesn't belong to him, simply to annoy us,--and it
certainly has been done with no other object,--I think
that he ought to be told of it. Frank, however, has got to
be quite serious about it, and you know how very serious
he can be when he is serious.

But I did not sit down to write specially about that
horrid chapel. I want to know what you mean to do in
the summer. It is always better to make these little
arrangements beforehand; and when I speak of the summer,
I mean the early summer. The long and the short of it is,
will you come to us about the end of May?

Of course, I know which way your thoughts will go when you
get this, and, of course, you will know what I am thinking